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Figures released at the opening of the 2026 China International Big Data Industry Expo on Friday placed the scale of China’s data industry at 6.78 trillion yuan for 2025, a 15.7 percent rise from the 5.86 trillion yuan recorded a year earlier and continuing an upward trend that saw the sector at 5.06 trillion yuan in 2023. Data-related software products including AI application software together with data resource products such as token services generated 4.99 trillion yuan, accounting for 73.6 percent of the overall industry total according to the China Data Industry Development Report (2026). The sustained expansion reflects the sector’s central role in powering artificial intelligence technologies that have gained significant traction across the economy.
The report from the National Institute of Data Development showed that more than 126,000 high-quality datasets had been constructed nationwide as of August 2026. Their aggregate volume exceeded 1,815 petabytes, marking an 89 percent increase from levels in March. This dataset expansion provides critical fuel for AI model training and innovation while supporting broader data element circulation.
By the close of 2025 the country counted 482,000 data enterprises, an increase of 17.9 percent year on year, with particularly active financing for those focused on large language models, synthetic simulation and embodied intelligence. The eastern region alone accounted for 5.23 trillion yuan of the national data industry scale, underscoring the clustering effect taking hold. The institute’s assessment found these trends demonstrate the vitality being released across the data sector as new business models emerge.
Computing infrastructure has likewise advanced rapidly with intelligent computing capacity reaching 2.4 million PFLOPS by the end of June 2026, a 50.9 percent gain in just six months. The eight national computing hubs now represent close to 90 percent of the country’s total intelligent computing resources. In Guizhou province 50 key data centers were operating by late July with 98.4 percent of their 176.57 EFLOPS capacity dedicated to AI workloads.
The report traced the rapid growth to policy efforts that began in 2019 when China became the world’s first country to formally recognize data as a factor of production. This was followed by the establishment of the National Data Bureau in 2023 to coordinate development of the data market and related applications. Such measures have enabled the data economy to emerge as a key pillar supporting the country’s digital transformation objectives.
Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Bureau, stated that AI development is heavily driven by data. “Wherever AI advances, we push forward the construction and application of high-quality datasets,” he added. Hu Jianbo, director of the National Institute of Data Development, noted in releasing the report that token services will give rise to new industrial ecosystems while breakthroughs in AI-native data technologies will accelerate and sustain relatively rapid industry growth.
