During the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2025 in Shanghai, a group of industrial robots demonstrated their capabilities. (Photo/Xinhua)
Shanghai - Shanghai is accelerating the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and manufacturing as part of a broader push to strengthen the city's digital-driven industrial ecosystem, the municipal government announced on Thursday.
Since launching its "industrial enablement chain leader" initiative in 2022, Shanghai has nurtured 42 benchmark enterprises in key industries, including the automotive, high-end equipment and aerospace sectors, local authorities revealed at an innovation conference hosted by the Shanghai Industrial Internet Association.
These companies are leveraging industrial internet platforms to drive supply chain collaboration and spearhead the digital upgrade of the manufacturing sector.
The initiative has extended its reach to over 360,000 enterprises across the supply chain, driving and empowering more than 7,000 core upstream and downstream businesses.
Data shows that in the first three quarters of 2025, Shanghai was home to 394 major AI enterprises, with an industry scale of 435.49 billion yuan (about 62.04 billion U.S. dollars) -- a year-on-year increase of 39.6 percent. Total profits amounted to 40.78 billion yuan, up 11.4 percent from the same period in 2024.
As of Dec. 24, 2025, Shanghai had registered 139 large language models (LLMs), with nearly 300,000 professionals specializing in AI.
Eight Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, have recently rolled out a plan of action to integrate AI with manufacturing. The plan includes the deep deployment of three to five general-purpose LLMs in the manufacturing sector by 2027, as well as the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets and the promotion of 500 benchmark application scenarios.