How can China’s intelligent manufacturing leverage innovation to build core competitiveness for the future? KPMG held its second annual Intelligent Manufacturing Technology 50 list and report release conference during a China Intelligent Manufacturing Entrepreneur Ecosystem Summit, releasing the “Second Annual Intelligent Manufacturing Technology 50” report and list on-site. Jiang Liqin, Head of Client and Business Development at KPMG China, pointed out that cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence are currently fostering numerous industrial breakthroughs. Intelligent manufacturing, through the deep integration of next-generation information technologies such as the Industrial Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics with advanced manufacturing technologies, leads and drives the intelligent, high-end, and green transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, empowering enterprises to develop new-quality productivity. This productivity not only significantly improves production efficiency but also enables intelligent, personalized, and flexible production processes, breaking through the limitations of traditional manufacturing and providing solid support for building a modern industrial system. The “Top 50 Smart Manufacturing Technologies” selection, launched in May 2025, is open to companies nationwide in the field of smart manufacturing technology, covering four major tracks: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), smart manufacturing, smart robots, and specialized and innovative “little giants” (small giants). Its aim is to discover outstanding companies that actively innovate and lead change in the industrial sector, stimulate industry vitality, and promote industrial upgrading. Specifically, IIoT focuses on automation solutions; smart manufacturing emphasizes lighthouse factories; smart robots focus on human-machine collaboration; and specialized and innovative “little giants” emphasize promoting new industrialization. After rigorous evaluation and multiple rounds of expert review, the most promising and innovative companies were finally selected. Data shows that over 70% of the listed companies are in the smart manufacturing and smart robot tracks; nearly half are growth-stage companies established for 6-10 years; and over 80% of the companies have technical personnel accounting for more than 40% of their workforce. The geographical distribution shows a pattern of “eastern leadership and rising central and western regions.”
KPMG China’s Lead Partner for Industrial Manufacturing and Automotive, Xu Kanling, stated that the manufacturing industry is evolving towards a “new industry” characterized by high efficiency, intelligence, and sustainable development. Taking the automotive manufacturing industry as an example, the deep integration of electrification and intelligentization is driving the transformation of automobiles from simple transportation tools to intelligent terminals. With technological breakthroughs, industrial manufacturing will usher in a golden age of greater intelligence, personalization, and greenness. The listed companies showcase the innovative power of China’s intelligent manufacturing and depict a path to high-quality development. KPMG hopes to build broader industrial innovation and ecosystem collaboration with these leaders. The “Second Annual Smart Manufacturing Technology 50” report, released concurrently on the same day, argues that the draft of the 15th Five-Year Plan positions manufacturing as the “skeleton” and “foundation” of the national economic system, endowing it with national security attributes. This signifies a shift in China’s manufacturing development strategy from “efficiency first” to “equal emphasis on safety, controllability, and efficiency.” The report particularly emphasizes that industrial big data models have become the core engine of intelligent transformation, and the market size for industrial big data model applications in China is expected to continue expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 23%. The report also proposes six major trends in intelligent manufacturing development towards 2030, such as industrial big data models driving industrial restructuring. From the perspective of “human-machine symbiosis,” human-machine collaboration has entered a new stage of “cognitive intelligence,” with Chinese industrial robots making progress in many aspects, achieving a dual improvement in safety and efficiency. KPMG China Strategy and Transaction Consulting Partner Kang Qiming stated that truly competitive companies in the long term are system solution providers. Looking ahead to 2030, the competitive high ground in China’s intelligent manufacturing will be concentrated in the “cognitive intelligence” of human-machine collaboration, with companies that first achieve autonomous learning and contextual understanding in robots defining future industry standards.
