From cutting-edge technologies to industrial capital, the 2026 Industrial Future Conference witnesses "Above the Deep Water"
Industrial investment has entered a deep-water zone, where technology, capital and industries are all re-searching for new judgment criteria. From the commercialization of quantum computing, to the re-division of labor among state-owned assets, funds and enterprises, and then to industrial opportunities amid "surplus", "deep water", "window period" and "upgrading", the 2026 Industrial Future Conference tries to answer the same question: when the old investment logic no longer applies, how should industrial value at the next stage be discovered, verified and supported in the long term.
In 2026, industrial investment steps into the deep-water zone: cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence are accelerating industrialization, investment paradigms in different tracks are gradually taking shape, and more long-cycle, heavy-investment projects in the market are forcing every investor, industrial practitioner and technical personnel to think about the future.
From September 9 to 10, the 2026 Industrial Future Conference with the theme of "Above Deep Water, Resonate for New Growth" was held in Yizhuang, Beijing. The conference focused on the industrialization of future industries such as quantum technology, and deeply discussed the current perspectives of cutting-edge technologies and industries. Keynotes and roundtables intensively demonstrated breakthroughs in technical routes including superconductivity, photonic quantum and ion trap, and shared a large number of specific industrial scenarios, industrial system construction, and the prospect of heterogeneous computing. Industrial participants from state-owned asset platforms, government guidance funds, industrial investment funds, corporate CVCs, leading industrial enterprises, innovative enterprises and experts and scholars gathered together to jointly discuss the future of technology industrial investment.
At the opening of the conference, Feng Dagang, CEO of 36Kr, said in his opening speech, "Quantum computing is the most typical deep-water industry in this era. Its return cycle is measured in decades, with no quick money to be gained, and today's hype has nothing to do with it. It bets on the computing paradigm 20 years later. The capital from the government, the technology from scientific research, the scenarios from industries, and the patience from capital must be combined together, none of them is dispensable."
Feng Dagang, CEO of 36Kr
The conference intensively presented the development achievements of the quantum industry in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area. At present, more than 60 upstream and downstream quantum enterprises have been gathered here, covering all technical routes such as superconductivity, ion trap, neutral atom and photonic quantum, connecting the whole fields of quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum measurement, forming a cluster trend of "whole machine traction, upstream key technology breakthrough, and software-hardware collaboration", and building a complete chain covering from key components to whole machine systems, from software algorithms to application services.
Relying on the National Information Technology Application Innovation Park, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area has built the "Quantum Constellation" industrial community with high standards, connecting "one center, four platforms and one base", and pioneered the incubation mechanism of "technical manager accompanying operation, scenario landing officer assisting takeoff, and capital partner empowering", to help start-ups grow steadily, accelerate the application and implementation of quantum technology, and set a new paradigm for the future industrial development of the capital.
The unveiling ceremony of Beijing Quantum-Electronic Integration Innovation Center was held at the event site. The "Quantum Constellation" industrial community signed contracts with 10 representative settled enterprises, simultaneously launched the quantum technology "Scenario Handshake Plan", released 6 major scenario cases including vehicle-end quantum communication security, and solicited technical scenarios and application solutions for fields such as logistics transportation and information security.
Signing ceremony for representative settled enterprises of the "Quantum Constellation" industrial community
Quantum Technology "Scenario Handshake Plan"
01 From "Being Able to Do It" to "Having Paying Customers", Quantum Computing Moves Toward Industrialization
As the most intensively discussed track on the first day of this conference, quantum computing has faced a practical problem in recent years: industrialization. In the past few years, technical routes including superconductivity, photonic quantum and ion trap have continued to make progress, but from "being able to calculate" to "being useful", there are still multiple thresholds such as engineering, cost and application scenarios — quantum computing is still more of a technology than an industry.
How far is the quantum industry from us now? Jin Yirong, researcher of Beijing Quantum Research Institute and founder of Coherent Technology, first gave a judgment from the frontline technical perspective in his keynote speech themed "The Last Kilometer of Quantum Computing". He believes that quantum computing has "reached the initial stage of engineering and industrialization", and the "last kilometer" needs to make efforts in stability, delivery capability, industrial system construction and quantum-classical computing collaboration. He emphasized that many people linearly think that quantum computing is still far from solving high-value problems, but under the superposition of the strong exponential law and the Moore's-like law, the actual development speed has exceeded the "imagination of entrepreneurs and researchers fighting on the front line".
Jin Yirong, Researcher of Beijing Quantum Research Institute and Founder of Coherent Technology
The perspective of the industrial side focuses on system construction and role division. At the roundtable of "Deep Water Era of AI", Zou Ping, Dean of 36Kr Research Institute, had a dialogue with Zhang Fan, General Manager of Artificial Intelligence Investment Department of Yizhuang State Investment, discussing how Yizhuang's quantum industry can thrive relying on the existing favorable industrial soil and perfect supply chain system. At the roundtable of "New Map of Industrial Division of Labor", executives from enterprises including China Telecom Quantum Group, Huayi Quantum, Zhongke Huguang Quantum and Liangyi Wanxiang shared the repositioning of industrial capital, scientific research institutes and supporting enterprises from different perspectives, and focused on the replicability of the Yizhuang model and the importance of local supply chain construction.
Roundtable: Leap · Deep Flow of AI, Value Surge — In the Deep Water Era of AI, from Model Competition to Industrial Value Emergence
Roundtable: Pathfinding · New Map of Industrial Division of Labor, Seeing the New Future — How National Strength Can Be Transformed into Industrial Value
In addition, investors from Vision Capital and Dingxing Quantum shared from the capital side perspective how the feasibility of technical paths and team iteration and upgrading have become key factors determining investors' views. Song Xuwen, Partner of Yunxiu Capital, sorted out in his keynote speech how multi-route breakthrough, ecosystem formation and AI integration promote quantum computing to enter the engineering inflection point, and looked forward to the vision of "heterogeneous integrated whole machine" with multi-routes of quantum computing system in the future, rather than a single route.
Roundtable: Growth · New Equation of Capital Investment — Patience and Value to Go Through Cycles
Song Xuwen, Partner of Yunxiu Capital and Head of the Frontier Technology Group
As the quantum industry is entering a key inflection point with policy support and accelerated capital layout, Bao Jie, Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientist of Core Vision (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., as a representative of the quantum technology industry, was invited to deliver a keynote speech titled "Quantum Sensing Chip: Opening the 'Sensing Entry' of the Physical World for Physical AI", which fully explained the industrialization development path of integrated innovation of quantum technology and physical AI. The improved innovation under the original technical path cannot break through the technical bottleneck at the principle level, while quantum technology can provide breakthrough innovation at the underlying principle level. With quantum technology as the underlying support, a global sensing system is built, which takes into account both single-point deep detection and wide-area multi-dimensional collection. Core Vision has built a sensing system covering the whole process scenarios of urban smart water systems, constructed a generalizable liquid global sensing capability, continuously deeply integrated with artificial intelligence computing power and large models, continuously extended from the government end and industrial end to the consumer end, and deeply integrated with fields such as embodied intelligence, aerospace information and medical health.
Bao Jie, Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientist of Core Vision (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd.
Focusing on the development of the quantum industry at the next stage, the conference also launched discussions from three levels: technical routes, enterprise practices and application scenarios. Enterprises including Regular Quantum, Momentum Light Qubit and Bose Quantum exchanged views on the "next decade" around the characteristics and collaboration of different technical routes such as photonic quantum and superconductivity; enterprises including Yunmao Quantum, Yixin Intelligence, Yupan Quantum Intelligence, Guoguang Quantum Ultra and Kunyu Quantum started from their own cases, demonstrating how Yizhuang's multi-route layout of quantum industry fits the technical direction, business model and implementation progress of different enterprises.
Roundtable: Quantum Intelligence Resonance · Multiple Paths: Jointly Build the Next Decade of China's Quantum Industry
Enterprise Cases: Ecology · Industrial Synergy of Multi-route Quantum Exploration, Yizhuang Density of Quantum Cluster