KPMG Releases Yangtze River Delta Intelligent Economy New Quality Leaders List: 30 AI Hard-Tech Companies Make the List, 90% Have Gone Global or Intend To

Chip design is in Zhangjiang, Shanghai; the algorithm ecosystem is in Hangzhou; precision manufacturing is in Suzhou; and new energy and quantum information are laid out in Hefei. In the Yangtze River Delta, it often takes only a few hours' drive for a hard-tech enterprise to assemble the entire upstream and downstream industry chain. In its selection report, KPMG summarized this layout as a "chain-style" ecosystem, believing that it significantly lowers the cost of innovation trial and error. On October 30, the "Future Unicorns—KPMG China Yangtze River Delta Intelligent Economy New Quality Leaders List" award ceremony and report release event was held in Shanghai, and the "Future Unicorns—KPMG China Yangtze River Delta Intelligent Economy New Quality Leaders Selection Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") was released the same day. The selection was launched by KPMG in April this year and targets non-listed hard-tech enterprises with artificial intelligence (AI) as the core driving force. After enterprise registration, material review, on-site visits and research, and multiple rounds of expert review, it attracted nearly 100 enterprises from the Yangtze River Delta to apply, and 30 enterprises were ultimately listed. Chen Yi, Chief Partner of KPMG China East China and West China Region, said that the intelligent economy, driven by AI at its core, is the core engine for cultivating new quality productive forces and enhancing regional competitiveness. The Yangtze River Delta combines the "completeness" of the industrial chain with the "depth" of basic research and has become the core source of China's intelligent economy development, with a large number of AI-driven hard-tech enterprises emerging at an accelerated pace. KPMG hopes to use the list and the "Report" as a vehicle to discover local hard-tech innovation forces and build a collaborative ecosystem platform for government, industry, academia, research and capital. In the roundtable forum session, frontline representatives from investment institutions and enterprises discussed the technology transformation and future opportunities of the Yangtze River Delta intelligent economy under the AI wave, and four listed enterprises presented on-site roadshows to showcase their technological achievements and progress in commercialization. Zhang Xiaolei, Audit Lead Partner of KPMG China's Technology, Media and Telecommunications and New Economy sectors in East China and West China Region, based on nearly a year of in-depth research, proposed that five major trends deserve attention: underlying capabilities such as large models, computing power and algorithms continue to break through, and the core foundation of the intelligent economy is steadily consolidated; artificial intelligence is moving out of the laboratory and deeply integrating into all industries; the "AI + manufacturing" initiative is being deepened and made more substantive, and industrial agents are moving from demonstrations to production lines; the value of benchmark pilots is shifting from "single-factory leadership" to "spillover along the chain"; and the competitiveness of the domestic intelligent industry is being validated overseas. "In the past, when we talked about 'empowerment,' we meant helping enterprises run faster on their original track; the 'intelligence empowerment' we see today is redefining the track itself." Zhou Zhen, Lead Partner of KPMG China's Yangtze River Delta G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor project, said when interpreting the list that data, computing power and algorithms are the three core driving elements of the intelligent economy, and the Yangtze River Delta has formed a complete industrial ecosystem from underlying computing power and core algorithms to terminal applications and high-end equipment. Most of the listed enterprises are fast-growing small and medium-sized hard-tech enterprises with high R&D investment intensity, and they continue to make breakthroughs in core technology research and industry scenario implementation, constituting the most active innovation layer of the Yangtze River Delta intelligent economy. The "Report" shows that the regional distribution of listed enterprises is led by Shanghai, with Jiangsu and Zhejiang advancing side by side and Anhui accelerating cultivation; more than 60% of enterprises focus on the two major directions of intelligent core technologies and AI+ integrated applications; 90% of enterprises have gone overseas or intend to do so, with Southeast Asia and North America as the two main destinations; enterprises at the A-round stage account for the highest proportion, while the proportions at the B round and C round and above are relatively balanced, showing a clear echelon of growth. KPMG stated that it will rely on the list and the "Report" to continue deepening its presence in the Yangtze River Delta and build a platform for display, exchange and resource connection for non-listed hard-tech enterprises. As industrial intelligence and consumer intelligence advance in depth, the Yangtze River Delta is expected to further leverage its industrial synergy advantages and drive intelligent transformation in the region and even the whole country.