Fresh investments to help Shanghai up value chain

Fresh investment inflows into Shanghai by international big names and leading domestic industry players, featuring pioneering and future-oriented technologies, will help the city further move up the value chain and pave the way for high-quality economic growth, officials and executives said.

Shanghai will step up the construction of concept verification centers, pilot testing platforms and high-quality incubators, making the technological facilities more widely accessible to companies and talent, said Chen Jining, Shanghai's Party secretary, during the 2026 Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference held on Saturday.

Ten pilot testing platforms were unveiled during the event, including those for the advanced manufacturing of civilian aircraft, components for humanoid robots, and bio-manufacturing for nutritional and health products.

Changzhou Fusion New Materials Co Ltd registered a new photovoltaic conductive paste company in Shanghai on Feb 28, with a total investment of 300 million yuan ($43.5 million). This is in succession to the company's new semiconductor factory located in southwestern Shanghai's Minhang district that went operational in September.

According to the company's chairman Liu Haidong, without the pilot testing platforms built in Shanghai, projects like photovoltaic conductive paste could hardly come into being due to the extremely high difficulties regarding investment and operation. Combined with Shanghai's advantages in location, talent supply, and forward-looking policies, an amiable ecosystem has been created for high-tech companies to quickly start their businesses, he said.

Shanghai-headquartered augmented reality glasses company, XReal, saw its sales in the fourth quarter of 2025 spike over 50 percent year-on-year. According to the company's founder and CEO Xu Chi, the overall high efficiency in Shanghai — boosted by the city's competency in computing and algorithm — its complete supply chain for optics, display equipment and precision manufacturing, as well as its talent density, cannot be found elsewhere in the country.

Shanghai is now home to over 25,000 high-tech companies. Added value contributed by knowledge-intensive service providers accounted for 38 percent of Shanghai's 5.67 trillion yuan GDP last year.

According to Tang Shengfeng, vice-president for the climate solutions of Carrier in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Shanghai is active in creating new application scenarios for emerging technologies. The city's goal of "moderately planning in advance in new types of infrastructure such as computing" has pointed to new room for growth for the century-old company.

Phoenix project, Carrier's air-cooled chiller project expected to attract a total of 400 million yuan of investment, saw its first chiller roll off in northern Shanghai's Baoshan district in January. Incorporating AI, digital and automation technologies, the project can address the cooling demand of data centers, which can take up 40 percent of all energy consumption.

Carrier's bold move in Shanghai can be largely attributed to the transparent, consistent and highly predictable government policies and business environment in the city, which are especially valuable given the volatility and complexity currently present in the global market landscape. Multinational companies like Carrier can focus on their prime businesses and have the confidence to map frontier technologies, which not only serves the Chinese domestic market, but also feeds into the technology upgrades in the company's operations in other regions of the world, he said.

Jose Tomas Corthorn, Asia general manager for Chilean company CMPC Group, which produces and commercializes forestry products, paper and tissue products, said he is impressed by the ongoing technology innovation and improved government policies in Shanghai. The visa-free entry and 30-day permitted stay in the Shanghai Eastern Hub International Business Cooperation Zone serve as good examples for the government's continued efforts to better its business environment, he said.

While the world is seeing escalated tensions, a stable and inviting environment in Shanghai, and that of China as a whole, has sent a strong signal of embracing investment and collaboration. While the Global South has been good partners in raw materials and food, bonds can be strengthened by further reaching into the technology sector, where China can play a big part and help advance productivity of all parties, he said.

shijing@chinadaily.com.cn