BEIJING, CHINA / RankWire.AI / – China’s digital industry generated 20.71 trillion yuan in revenue during the first half of 2026, up 13.6% from a year earlier. Total profit reached 1.79 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.3%. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the sector’s revenue growth accelerated by 4.1 percentage points from the same period last year. The industry’s profit margin reached 8.6%, up 0.7 percentage point.
China’s digital industry posted strong revenue and profit growth in the first half of 2026. (AI-generated image)
China’s largest digital industry centers accounted for most of the national total. The 10 leading provincial-level markets generated 17.21 trillion yuan in combined revenue, up 13.2%. They represented 83.1% of national digital industry revenue and contributed 87% of overall revenue growth. Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang ranked among those major markets. Central China recorded 2.86 trillion yuan in digital industry revenue, an increase of 28.3% from a year earlier.
Digital infrastructure also expanded during the six-month period. China had 5.102 million 5G base stations at the end of June. The country also had 32.86 million 10G PON ports capable of supporting gigabit network services. The number of 5G RedCap base stations reached 2.247 million. Intelligent computing capacity climbed to 2,185 EFLOPS using FP16 measurement, up 177% from a year earlier. Overall utilization across computing facilities reached 71.4%.
Digital infrastructure expands across China
China had built 52 intelligent computing facilities with deployments exceeding 10,000 accelerator cards by the end of June. More than 80,000 private 5G industry networks were operating across the country. Applications using 5G and gigabit optical networks covered 94 major categories of the national economy. China also had more than 26,000 active 5G and industrial internet projects. Authorities reported that 1,260 classified 5G factories had been established nationwide.
Digital manufacturing posted faster production and earnings growth during the first half. Value-added output in the electronics industry rose 14.8% from a year earlier. Revenue at major electronic information manufacturers reached 12.15 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.8%. Their combined profit climbed 66% to 703.6 billion yuan. Integrated circuits, computer manufacturing and specialized electronic materials contributed strongly to the reported profit increase. Electronics output growth exceeded overall industrial growth by 9.4 percentage points.
Software and IT services maintain growth
China’s digital services sector also expanded in the first six months of 2026. Total telecommunications business volume rose 8.3% when measured at constant prices from the previous year. Software and information technology services revenue increased 9.5%. Software product revenue grew 6.9%, while information technology services revenue advanced 10.4%. Major internet companies reported a 10.1% increase in revenue and a 16.6% rise in total profit from the same period of 2025.
The digital industry figures came as technology-related services continued to outpace broader economic growth. China’s economy expanded 4.7% in the first half of 2026, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Information transmission, software and information technology services recorded 10.7% growth in value added during the period. China’s digital industry covers electronic information manufacturing, telecommunications, software and IT services, and internet-related services. Those sectors form a central part of the country’s wider digital economy.