On September 15th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly released the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry." The Plan outlines 17 key tasks and 9 major sections designed to fortify the industry's foundational capabilities, enhance the competitiveness of electronic systems, foster new growth areas, and bolster sustainable development. It emphasizes a scenario and demand-driven approach, utilizing measures such as integrated research, domestic substitution, and ecosystem building to strengthen weak links and secure future competitive advantages.
According to the Plan, by 2030, China's electronic information manufacturing industry is expected to play a pivotal role in the global industrial landscape. Revenue for enterprises above a designated size is projected to surpass 30 trillion yuan. The plan anticipates breakthroughs in long-board technologies and products across sectors including integrated circuits, advanced computing, consumer electronics, foundational electronics, and energy electronics. The goal is to cultivate world-class enterprises with strong competitiveness and achieve an industry-wide R&D investment intensity of 3.5%.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the industry achieved significant progress, with revenue ranking first among 41 industrial categories for 13 consecutive years, highlighting its crucial role in stabilizing the industrial economy. Notable breakthroughs were made in integrated circuits, servers, and new displays. The development of AI terminals accelerated, and the scale application of the BeiDou system saw new advancements, contributing significantly to the advancement of new industrialization and the construction of a manufacturing and cyber power.
The "15th Five-Year Plan" period presents a complex and evolving environment for the industry, marked by both strategic opportunities and risks. Officials have stressed the need for enhanced foresight and proactive measures. The Plan serves as the core of a top-level design strategy, aiming to usher in a new chapter of high-quality development for the electronic information manufacturing sector.
Experts note that as a general-purpose technology, information technology has historically advanced through cycles of foundational breakthroughs, explosive growth in flagship systems, complementary innovations, and widespread diffusion. Currently, artificial intelligence is driving a new cycle of unprecedented scale. In foundational technology, large model breakthroughs are continuously improving capabilities in areas like multimodality and embodied intelligence, fueling demand for innovations in AI accelerators, high-bandwidth memory, advanced packaging, and liquid cooling.
The integration of AI into various terminals, including phones, computers, and wearables, is creating new flagship products. Significant innovations such as intelligent agents and robotics are emerging, paving the way for comprehensive integration across various industries. This cycle is expected to unlock the greatest growth potential in the coming period.
This technological revolution is also broadening the dimensions of industrial competition. While advanced process nodes continue to progress, architectural innovation, advanced packaging, and software-hardware co-design are becoming new sources of performance enhancement. Systemic innovation capabilities are increasingly key to industrial competitiveness. China's comprehensive product systems and integration strengths offer unique advantages in organizing innovation at a systemic level, positioning it to gain an edge in these new competitive dimensions. The Plan aligns with the powerful growth engine of AI-driven intelligence.
The new AI wave is creating dual drivers of demand from both the investment and consumption sides, propelling the industry into a phase of simultaneous scale and efficiency growth. On the investment side, the scaling law of large models persists, with global compute investment showing long-term and large-scale characteristics. As of the end of June 2026, China's intelligent computing power scale grew by 177% year-on-year. As large models transition from training to large-scale application, demand for inference computing is rising, shifting compute infrastructure from centralized clusters to a full "cloud-edge-end" chain, thereby boosting growth in servers, storage, networking equipment, and related components.
On the consumption side, AI is rapidly permeating various terminal devices. In 2025, shipments of AI-enabled smartphones and computers in China surpassed 100 million units. It is projected that by 2026, sales of these AI devices will exceed those of non-AI products, signaling a shift in the terminal market driven by intelligent upgrades. This convergence of demand is fundamentally transforming industry growth. The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) forecasts that the global semiconductor market will reach $1.51 trillion in 2026, breaking the trillion-dollar mark for the first time, and further grow to $1.91 trillion in 2027, opening new and expansive growth prospects for the industry.
Notably, the Plan places the "promotion of full-chain R&D in integrated circuits" as the top priority among its 17 key tasks. It explicitly calls for the development of high-end chip products, including high-performance processors, high-density memories, and reliable analog and mixed-signal chips. Measures include enhancing manufacturing capabilities, refining mature processes, advancing capabilities in advanced nodes, and promoting the development and application of advanced packaging and testing technologies.
The Plan also targets the upgrade of the wide-bandgap semiconductor industry and the industrialization of ultra-wide-bandgap materials like gallium oxide and diamond. Furthermore, it aims to improve the supply capacity of key equipment, materials, and components, accelerate the development of EDA tools and IP cores, and drive technological breakthroughs in areas like 3D integration.
This focus on integrated circuits stems from the industry's role as the core of the information technology sector, serving as a strategic, foundational, and leading industry for economic and national security. While the "14th Five-Year Plan" period saw significant achievements across the entire chain, the new "15th Five-Year Plan" adopts extraordinary measures to achieve decisive breakthroughs in core technologies. This year's Government Work Report also explicitly identified the integrated circuit industry as a key emerging pillar industry. These initiatives are expected to foster world-class enterprises with long-board technologies and cultivate manufacturing champions and specialized, sophisticated "little giant" firms to enhance the overall competitiveness of the industrial chain.