Industrial and software sectors contributed half of Shanghai's GDP in 2025

With the accelerated development of new quality productive forces, Shanghai's industry, along with its software and information technology service industry, maintained stable and progressive growth by contributing 50 percent of the city's GDP, which provided strong support for the city's economic and social development, according to official sources.

"Total industrial output of the city's industrial enterprises above the designated size, which refers to those with an annual revenue of 20 million yuan or above, reached 4.07 trillion yuan ($584.52 billion) in 2025, setting a historical record, and surpassing the 4 trillion yuan mark after two years' gap," Xin Leifu, director of economic operation department with the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, said during a news conference on Friday.

"The added value of these industrial enterprises grew by 5.1 percent, marking the fastest growth in nearly four years," Xin said.

Among all, transportation equipment manufacturing, including railway, shipbuilding, aerospace, reported output growth of 15.8 percent, electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing soared 11.1 percent, automobile manufacturing of 7.8 percent, and that of computer, communication, and other electronic equipment of 7.7 percent, according to Xin.

The three leading industries, which are integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence, have seen their combined industrial scale increase 9.6 percent in 2025, and their output value expanded 85 percent during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, with their contribution to the city's total industrial output up from 7.8 percent to 12.4 percent during the same period.

"Integrated circuit and artificial intelligence manufacturing grew 15.1 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively, in 2025, becoming pillars in supporting Shanghai's industrial economic development," Xin said.

Significant revenue growth was also seen in Shanghai's software and information technology service industry, according to Ye Yueming, an official with the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization. The sector's annual revenue surged from 683.2 billion yuan in 2020 to 1.7 trillion yuan in the first 11 months of 2025, with the full-year figure projected to exceed 1.9 trillion yuan.

"Added value of information transmission, along with software and information technology service industry, reached 713.99 billion yuan, a growth of 15.3 percent, and contributed 12.6 percent of the city's GDP," Ye said, adding that it is becoming Shanghai's third-largest industry after industry and finance.

Thanks to the combined efforts of Shanghai's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, the city reported its GDP to rise 5.4 percent to 5.67 trillion yuan in 2025, 0.4 percentage point higher than the national average, Xin said.