A bird's-eye view of Wuxi. [Photo/Wuxi Daily]
Wuxi reported a 5 percent year-on-year increase in GDP for the first half of 2026, reaching 809.03 billion yuan ($119.80 billion), according to official data released on July 29.
Officials described the performance as evidence of the city's underlying economic resilience, even as it accelerates a broader shift from traditional industries toward higher-value sectors.
The transition is visible across multiple fronts. In the artificial intelligence sector, revenue climbed 29.6 percent in the January-to-May period, while the optoelectronic fusion industry posted a 43.1 percent surge. The integrated circuit industry, one of Wuxi's traditional strengths, saw revenue rise 15.9 percent and profits jump 50.4 percent during the same stretch.
Emerging fields, including embodied-intelligence robotics, low-altitude economy services, and commercial space ventures, all recorded revenue growth exceeding 20 percent. The city has also expanded its portfolio of algorithm registrations for internet and deep-synthesis services, with new computing and intelligence-processing capacity ranking second in the province.
The services sector, long a secondary player in the local economy, is also repositioning itself. In early July, the city convened a high-level conference on services-sector development, at which 10 key projects were signed, covering commercial space and intelligent computing. For the January-to-May period, revenue from high-tech services rose 3.4 percent, while technology-services revenue increased 4.2 percent.
On the external front, Wuxi re-entered China's top 10 foreign trade cities for the first time in eight years. Total imports and exports reached 499.08 billion yuan in the first half, ranking ninth nationally and marking a 28.5 percent increase year-on-year — 4.6 percentage points above the provincial average.
Copyright © China Daily. All rights reserved.