Some industries are not large in scale, but they can determine whether a city can sustain its competitiveness. In 2025, Shanghai's GDP reached 5.67 trillion yuan, continuing to lead among Chinese cities. The integrated circuit industry scale was nearly 580 billion yuan, the automotive industry's above-designated-size output value was 742.1 billion yuan, and cumulative new energy vehicle promotion exceeded 2 million units, ranking first globally among cities. On the ground, Shanghai has already secured enough number-one positions. Recently, China's top economic city has turned its gaze to the sky above.
On October 27, at the 2026 Satellite Internet Industry Ecosystem Conference, Shanghai launched preparations for a satellite internet industry fund. The fund is jointly initiated by Shanghai's municipal and district-level investment platforms together with social capital, and will leverage state-owned capital to empower technological innovation and cultivate the industrial ecosystem. Slightly earlier, the published "Shanghai Satellite Internet Industry Innovation and Development Action Plan (2027-2030)" set out more specific targets: by 2030, the total number of satellites in orbit will exceed 3,000, and the core industry scale will surpass 80 billion yuan.
Eighty billion yuan is not a large figure within Shanghai's 4-trillion-yuan industrial output. But the significance of this matter lies not in the current output value, but in the fact that the "top economic city" is using state-owned capital to leverage a strategic track with an extremely long cycle, enormous investment, and strong externalities. The accounts of strategic industries can never be calculated based on final-stage output value. Shanghai's action itself is a signal. Satellite internet pulls downward on an entire chain including satellite manufacturing, rocket launches, ground terminals, chip modules, and tracking, telemetry and control operations, while connecting upward to 6G, AI, and space-based computing. For example, Songjiang District's industrial framework for the "15th Five-Year Plan" has already made the logic very clear: "6G + AI + satellite internet + space-based computing." Satellite internet is not an isolated track; it is the space-based foundation of future information infrastructure. Whoever lays the foundation first will be qualified to participate in defining interfaces and standards in 6G and next-generation computing networks.
Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2040, the global space economy market size is expected to exceed 1 trillion US dollars, with satellite broadband contributing 50% to 70% of the growth. For Shanghai, 80 billion yuan is not the final output value, but the starting point for securing an early position in the space economy and participating in defining next-generation information infrastructure. It is worth noting that the satellite internet race has an extremely brutal metric: the number of satellites in orbit. Currently, Starlink has more than 10,000 active satellites in orbit, and the combined in-orbit numbers of China's Guowang GW constellation and Qianfan constellation still lag far behind Starlink. Shanghai's inclusion of "total satellites in orbit exceeding 3,000" in its 2030 targets, viewed within China's overall plan of more than 10,000 satellites, means that from now to 2030, the pace of satellite manufacturing and launches must shift from regular operations to industrialization. Songjiang's G60 satellite digital factory already has the capacity to produce 300 satellites per year, with a single satellite taking only 1.5 days to produce. The capacity logic on the manufacturing side is being proven, so the capital side must keep up.
Behind this, Shanghai has clearly seen three things. Global commercial aerospace is shifting from state-team dominance to market-oriented operations; low-orbit frequency and orbital resources follow "first come, first served," and the window period is fleeting; in the 6G era of integrated space-air-ground networks, satellite internet is an unavoidable underlying infrastructure. What is state-owned capital investing in? The special feature of the satellite internet industry fund is not the word "fund," but the initiating structure: municipal and district-level investment platforms plus social capital, with state-owned capital serving as leverage. The capital needs of this track are naturally mismatched with most financial capital. Constellation networking requires launching hundreds or even thousands of satellites first to form basic service capability, and the early stage involves years of continuous net investment. Market-based capital finds it difficult to remain patient during the constellation ramp-up period. State-owned capital leverage precisely matches this need. It ensures that capital supply does not falter during the steepest part of the capacity ramp-up.
Shanghai's chosen path is also very "Shanghai." Rather than building every satellite itself, it uses chain-leading enterprises to drive development, industrial funds to leverage growth, supply-demand platforms to match parties, and open application scenarios to cultivate the ecosystem. This is more difficult than simply competing on the manufacturing capability of a single satellite, and it is also more consistent with Shanghai's position in China's economy. What Shanghai is aiming at is not an 80-billion-yuan niche market. It is aiming at whether, when low-orbit space becomes a new frontier for great-power industrial competition, Shanghai can replicate its ground-level industrial organization capacity, capital mobilization capacity, and institutional supply capacity to an orbit 500 kilometers above the Earth. The window period for satellite internet will not wait for a city to slowly think things through. At present, Shanghai has thought it through and has already taken action.
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