Shanghai Manufacturing Investment Data Surges, Global Heavy Position on Shanghai "Industrial Closed Loop"

Shanghai, which is accelerating the development of a modern industrial system, released a batch of new quality elements in the first year of the “14th Five-Year Plan,” building a solid “industry” foundation for global capital to heavily invest in Shanghai.

On March 14, the 2026 Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference opened and held a main promotion event, where 31 new quality elements—including key application scenarios, public service platforms, and pilot platforms—were collectively announced and promoted; the key development zones for Shanghai during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period were also unveiled, showcasing Shanghai’s innovation and industrial ecological advantages.

Tang Wenkang, Director of the Shanghai Investment Promotion Office (Municipal Economic and Information Technology Commission), previously stated at the investment promotion conference that in recent years, Shanghai has continuously optimized its business environment, deepened enterprise services, and will continue to focus on three areas to strengthen its position as the top choice for global investment: promoting industrial cluster development, enhancing innovation element supply, and accompanying enterprises throughout their growth.

He explained that, based on the “14th Five-Year Plan,” Shanghai will take advanced manufacturing as its backbone, constructing a “2+3+6+6” modern industrial system, and accelerate the development of world-class high-end industrial clusters. It will leverage leading enterprises in the supply chain, focusing on key industries such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, large aircraft, high-tech ships, and energy equipment, strengthening the innovative core of enterprises and taking on major technological challenges in critical core technologies. “We will play a guiding role through city-district coordination, develop version 3.0 of the industrial map, and promote each district to deeply cultivate leading industries, creating 25 billion-yuan sub-sectors tailored to local conditions.”

Jin Yezi / Photo

From Pioneers to the Future: The Industrial Foundation

As a new “technology-economy” cycle is brewing, attracting global capital and talent is no longer about simple tax incentives or land costs, but about the density of supply chains and the frontier technological engineering capabilities a place can offer.

In 2025, Shanghai’s gross regional product and industrial added value above designated size both grew by over 5%. An impressive figure is that Shanghai’s industrial investment increased by 20% year-on-year, outpacing the national average by 17.4 percentage points. Manufacturing investment alone grew by 22.8% year-on-year, surpassing the national growth rate of 22.2 percentage points.

As a native Shanghai AI company—MiniMax (00100.HK)—founder Yan Junjie shared his views at the conference. He said that Shanghai’s city spirit of “embracing all rivers, pursuing excellence, being open-minded and wise, and modest” aligns closely with MiniMax’s development direction. “Shanghai government departments at all levels maintain an open attitude toward AI development, and they have a high level of industry awareness, which is a key reason why companies can develop rapidly here.”

Similarly, Martin Fischer, President and CEO of Zeiss Greater China, mentioned in his keynote speech that Zeiss has achieved a leap from a trading company to an innovative manufacturing leader since entering China in 1957, especially after establishing a presence in Shanghai Pudong in 1999. Over the past five years, the company achieved a compound annual growth rate of 17.04%, with revenue in Shanghai surpassing 12.3 billion yuan in 2025. He emphasized that these achievements are inseparable from Shanghai’s continuously optimized business and investment environment.

In February this year, the groundbreaking ceremony for Zeiss Greater China’s headquarters complex was held in the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in Shanghai. The project covers nearly 80 acres with a total investment of over 1.2 billion yuan. The plan is for the Zeiss Greater China headquarters to integrate R&D, management, customer experience centers, and high-end manufacturing.

Fischer said that Shanghai is committed to building a global science and technology innovation center and actively promoting the “2+3+6+6” modern industrial system during the “14th Five-Year Plan,” which aligns well with Zeiss’s core strengths in healthcare, AI, semiconductors, industrial measurement, advanced manufacturing, and scientific research.

Beyond traditional advantageous industries, Shanghai’s “14th Five-Year Plan” aims to develop six emerging pillar industry clusters and strategically plan six future industries. The first “six” include new-generation electronic information, intelligent connected new energy vehicles, high-end equipment, advanced materials, new energy and green low-carbon industries, and fashionable consumer goods. The second “six” focus on future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space, and future health, with agile layouts in high-growth sectors like quantum technology, brain-computer interfaces, controlled nuclear fusion, biomanufacturing, sixth-generation mobile communication, ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors, brain-like intelligence, and deep-sea aerospace development.

Jin Yezi / Photo

Talking about future investment opportunities in Shanghai, Pu Yapeng, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Investment Promotion Office, said at the conference that Shanghai’s investment opportunities can be viewed from two perspectives: one is emerging fields like the three major leading industries; the other is the transformation and upgrading opportunities within the six major pillar industries.

Chen Rui, founder and CEO of Xinghuan Juneng, which moved its headquarters to Shanghai, highlighted Shanghai’s industrial environment.

He told First Financial that Shanghai was the first major Chinese city to focus on controlled nuclear fusion industry even before the national “14th Five-Year Plan” was officially proposed, and established a dedicated fund for it. The foresight of policies is the primary reason Xinghuan Jueneng chose Shanghai. Besides policy factors, the fusion industry chain is very long, including magnet materials, large machinery processing, electronic components, diagnostic equipment, etc. Many technical challenges in fusion devices push human limits, and Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region have strong foundations in superconducting materials, large precision processing, and high-end equipment manufacturing. Companies like Shanghai Superconducting and Shanghai Electric have become important suppliers in the fusion field.

In January this year, Xinghuan Jueneng completed a 1 billion yuan Series A financing, setting a record for domestic private fusion companies. Their globally first native negative triangular spherical tokamak NTST is about to start construction. “After financing, the most important goal is to get our No. 1 unit operational by the end of 2029,” Chen Rui said.

Long-term Investment by Patient Capital

In today’s cautious global capital flow environment, Shanghai continues to exert its “magnetic attraction,” which is supported by its institutional innovations in “patient capital.”

In July 2024, Shanghai’s three major leading industry funds were officially established, with a total scale of 90 billion yuan. The Shanghai Future Industry Fund, established in early 2025, has a total scale of 15 billion yuan.

Xu Yerong, Vice President of Shanghai Guotou, previously told First Financial that these two funds are functionally complementary. The future industry fund focuses on disruptive technologies like synthetic biology and quantum technology from “0 to 1,” while the three major leading industry funds are responsible for pushing these technologies from “1 to 10” and “10 to 100” in industrialization.

Chen Rui also mentioned his connection with Shanghai Guotou: “Since 2023, Shanghai Guotou has led two rounds of investment in us. The 1 billion yuan we raised includes 400 million yuan from Guotou, which provided strong backing and added value for the other 600 million yuan co-invested later.”

At the AI-themed industry event held by Shanghai Guotou on the afternoon of the 14th, Vice President Li Xin stated that the company is building an investment system of “funds + direct investments,” increasing its layout in the three major leading industries and six future industries. Through platforms like Shanghai Guotou Leading, it focuses on infrastructure for computing power, foundational models, and edge applications, aiming to create a capital ecosystem covering key segments of the industrial chain.

Chen Feng, CEO of Arm China, told First Financial that they have established a complete industry chain in Shanghai—from chip IP and design to AI algorithms and models, and smart terminals—and plan to further deepen local R&D and ecosystem development around AI, embodied intelligent robots, cloud-edge computing, and next-generation chip design, promoting the deep integration of global advanced architectures with China’s innovative industries. “Many projects invested by the leading funds in Shanghai, especially in AI and semiconductor integrated circuits, are on the Arm ecosystem chain, aligning closely with Arm’s ecosystem layout,” Chen Feng explained.

Data from Shanghai Guotou shows that by the end of January, the three major leading industry funds in Shanghai had invested approximately 41 billion yuan, leveraging nearly 200 billion yuan of social capital with about a fivefold effect. By the end of February, the Shanghai Future Industry Fund had approved 38 sub-funds and direct investment projects, totaling 4.747 billion yuan. Among these, 23 sub-funds mobilized over 20 billion yuan. By the end of December 2025, Shanghai Guotou had helped over 150 companies go public, including more than 80 on the STAR Market, accounting for nearly 30% of Shanghai-listed STAR Market companies.

(This article is from First Financial)