China issues 15th Five-Year Plan for electronic information manufacturing, targets 30 trillion yuan revenue by 2030

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission have jointly issued a plan aiming for the electronic information manufacturing industry to achieve revenue exceeding 30 trillion yuan.

AI as a Driving Force

According to experts interviewed, artificial intelligence serves as the main thread driving China's electronic information manufacturing industry from "scale leadership" toward "system leadership."

Seizing AI Development Opportunities

The plan proposes seizing opportunities in AI development, strengthening the AI foundation, and accelerating innovation across the entire electronic information manufacturing supply chain. By 2030, the industry's R&D investment intensity is expected to reach 3.5%, focusing on areas including integrated circuits, advanced computing, and consumer electronics.

"Transforming scale advantages into system advantages, and upgrading 'quantitative leadership' to 'qualitative superiority,' is a major proposition for the electronic information manufacturing industry during the '15th Five-Year Plan' period," said Ao Li. The plan deploys tasks across four dimensions—foundation building, chain strengthening, new growth cultivation, and sustainability—as a systematic response to the needs of this new phase.

Five-Pronged Approach to Full-Chain Innovation

To achieve these goals, the plan prioritizes full-chain innovation breakthroughs, including:

• Deepening efforts in integrated circuits
• Upgrading electronic components and materials to higher-end levels
• Advancing smart sensors and specialized equipment

The plan places significant emphasis on materials. According to Xiang Ligang, materials, energy, and information form an interdependent "iron triangle," with advanced materials such as diamond having revolutionary significance for the entire information industry and AI technology advancement. The plan not only recognizes the broad direction of AI but also identifies specific pathways to breakthroughs through materials, reflecting a combination of vision and practicality.

Liang Linjun, an expert from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, noted three bottlenecks currently constraining sustained computing power growth:

• The "memory wall," where processor computing power growth has long outpaced memory bandwidth growth
• The "power wall," driven by increasing computing density
• Constraints on large-scale cluster interconnection bandwidth

These bottlenecks are driving demand for high-bandwidth memory.

Strengthening the AI Hardware Foundation

With the foundation laid, where will growth come from? The plan outlines four emerging directions:

1. Consolidating advantages in the energy electronics industry
2. Promoting the development of the spatiotemporal information industry
3. Strengthening the AI hardware foundation
4. Accelerating innovation and integration of digital intelligence technologies in industry electronics

Energy Electronics as a Key Focus

The plan specifies advancing next-generation high-efficiency photovoltaic cell technologies—including high-efficiency crystalline silicon cells—along with supporting equipment and materials, and expanding "photovoltaic+" application scenarios.

Liu Weijun, co-founder of Guangyin Technology, told reporters: "Perovskite tandem cells are seen as the next direction for photovoltaic technology. As core bottlenecks such as stability and large-area preparation are gradually overcome, perovskite is expected to enter large-scale production within the next three to five years."

AI Hardware Holds Greater Potential

The plan proposes continuously driving the iteration and upgrade of AI-enabled products, including smartphones, personal computers, smart glasses, and audio-visual terminals, while broadening usage scenarios.

Xiang Ligang stated that the plan's logic for "cultivating new growth" is clear—new growth points do not emerge from nowhere but grow from existing industrial advantages, realizing value at the intersection of technological breakthroughs and scenario implementation.

Source: Shanghai Securities News