As the 14th Five-Year Plan period concludes, Wuxi City in Jiangsu Province has reinforced its leading position among major Chinese cities with a regional GDP of 1.68 trillion yuan and a per capita GDP exceeding $30,000.

This area, recognized as the cradle of China's modern national industry and commerce and the birthplace of the "Southern Jiangsu Model" for township enterprises, now stands at a new historical juncture. As the nation's 14th city to join the "trillion-yuan club," Wuxi is embarking on a journey to surpass a total economic output of 2 trillion yuan during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

How will this century-old industrial and commercial city achieve the next trillion-yuan milestone? The answer lies in its solid industrial foundation and the rising wave of artificial intelligence.

Among the 29 Chinese cities with GDPs exceeding one trillion yuan, Wuxi ranks in the upper middle tier, with an economic scale comparable to Nanjing, Ningbo, and Qingdao in the "quasi-2 trillion" cohort. However, the city shines uniquely in terms of developmental quality.

This distinction stems first from its remarkable population efficiency. With a resident population of approximately 7.5 million, Wuxi generates 1.68 trillion yuan in economic output. After leading the nation in per capita GDP among large and medium-sized cities in 2020, the figure further rose to 217,000 yuan in 2024, underscoring a pattern of a strong city and prosperous residents.

The brilliance also originates from a deeply ingrained "industrial gene." Wuxi is one of only two cities in Jiangsu with an industrial scale surpassing 2 trillion yuan. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, its total output value of industries above a designated size successively crossed the 2 trillion and 2.5 trillion yuan thresholds, reaching 2.7 trillion yuan in 2025, with an average annual value-added growth rate exceeding the national average.

Over these five years, 463 national-level "little giant" specialized and sophisticated enterprises have been nurtured here, and 127 companies have grown to list on the A-share market. The number of enterprises ranking among the top 500 Chinese companies and other key listings consistently leads the province. The path of "revitalizing the city through industry, leading to prosperous residents and a strong city" is becoming increasingly solid.

Wuxi's path of advancement has always revolved around the concept of "substantive industry." From the Rong family's industrial endeavors in modern times to the rise of township enterprises after reform and opening-up, the real economy has been the city's foundation. Entering the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Wuxi intensified its focus on real economic development,全力 building a "465" modern industrial cluster system and "3010" key industrial chains, allowing its century-old industrial and commercial DNA to renew itself in the new era.

Across Wuxi, the framework for industrial clustering is evident—55 landmark industrial parks, 77 parks for advantageous industries, and 43 future industrial parks are strategically distributed, forming a solid base for industrial development.

The integrated circuit industry exemplifies "innovation through inheritance." Starting from undertaking national key projects in the 1980s, Wuxi has now gathered leading enterprises like JCET Group and Hua Hong Semiconductor, earning the title "Whampoa Military Academy of China's IC industry." Over the past five years, the scale of its core segments—design, manufacturing, and packaging & testing—accounts for half of Jiangsu's total and one-eighth of the national total, with an increasingly mature industrial chain ecosystem.

"You can meet the needs of the entire industrial chain without leaving Wuxi," remarked Shan Yue'er, General Manager of Wuxi Zhongwei Yixin Co., Ltd., noting that park-based clustering not only facilitates the flow of talent and technology across the upstream and downstream but also significantly reduces hidden costs for enterprises.

Simultaneously, five national-level advanced manufacturing clusters, including the Internet of Things and the Taixilian biopharmaceutical cluster, have emerged here, with eight industrial clusters each achieving revenues exceeding 200 billion yuan. In 2025, strategic emerging industries accounted for 41.5% of the total output value of industries above the designated size, painting a picture of multi-point support and coordinated development.

The year 2025 marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period and is a crucial starting point for Wuxi's goal of reaching a 2 trillion yuan GDP. On January 23, at a special session of the Wuxi Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Party Secretary Du Xiaogang clearly stated the need to "seize the opportunities presented by the transformative era of artificial intelligence, fully implement the 'AI+' action, and empower scientific innovation, manufacturing, space, and other fields comprehensively."

The government work report presented at the recent Wuxi Municipal People's Congress explicitly proposed using "AI+" as an engine to drive high-quality development to new heights. What gives Wuxi the confidence to pursue "AI+"?

The answer lies within its more than 80,000 industrial enterprises, including 8,622 above the designated size, and its comprehensive manufacturing system spanning machinery, electronics, automobiles, and high-end equipment. With manufacturing contributing over 40% to GDP, this provides a vast number of real-world scenarios and urgent demands, creating an ideal "training ground" and "application field" for AI technologies.

Du Yuwei, Deputy Director and Research Fellow at the Regional Modernization Research Institute of the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that Wuxi possesses a robust manufacturing base and a leading IoT industry. The combination of "IoT sensing data + manufacturing application scenarios" forms a unique advantage, building a "high-speed road" for AI technology directly from the laboratory to the factory floor.

In October 2025, Wuxi's first "AI+Manufacturing" industrial empowerment center, named "Xishu Workshop," commenced operations in the Xinwu District. Inside its exhibition hall, AI solutions provided by industry leaders like iFlytek and local enterprises are on display, allowing manufacturing companies to intuitively match transformation pathways and finalize cooperation plans on-site.

"What attracts us most to Wuxi is its developed industrial foundation and strong willingness to transform," a relevant负责人 from the "Xishu Workshop" stated frankly, identifying this as the core reason for their focus on "AI+manufacturing."

According to the plan, Wuxi aims to create 150 typical "AI+manufacturing" scenarios, provide AI diagnostic services for industrial enterprises, and strive to become a national AI innovation application pilot zone. The target is for the scale of AI-related industries to exceed 300 billion yuan by 2027, with the core AI industry surpassing 70 billion yuan.

"We will deepen the empowerment of new industrialization by AI, forming a development pattern led by technology, driven by scenarios, and supported by a sound ecosystem," stated a relevant负责人 from the Wuxi Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology.

The deep integration of industry and scientific innovation is the fundamental driving force for Wuxi to achieve its 2 trillion yuan GDP goal. Du Xiaogang emphasized that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Wuxi will focus on industrial upgrading, digital-intelligent transformation, greening, and final-product orientation. It will continuously improve the promotion mechanism combining "chain leaders + chain masters" and "industrial clusters + characteristic parks." While consolidating advantageous industries like integrated circuits, the city will actively cultivate future industries, aiming for the total scale of modern industrial clusters to exceed 2.5 trillion yuan.

Concurrently, the construction of "Four Famous Cities" – a city of industrial and scientific innovation, a city of lake-bay ecology, a city of open hubs, and a city of Jiangnan culture – is advancing. By continuously optimizing the business environment and attracting population and talent, Wuxi is committed to achieving a virtuous cycle of high-quality economic development and improved public welfare.

The tides of Lake Taihu have surged for millennia without cease. From a century-old industrial and commercial city to a modern hub of intelligent manufacturing, Wuxi once again stands at the crest of the era's wave. As profound industrial heritage meets disruptive artificial intelligence technology, a new journey focused on urban capability leapfrogging, industrial landscape reshaping, and enhancing the quality of life for its people has already set sail.