Anhui aims to build another new pillar industry.

According to Anhui Daily, on September 28, the Information Office of Anhui Provincial People's Government held a press conference to interpret the *Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Robot Industry* which was recently issued by the General Office of Anhui Provincial People's Government.

It was revealed at the meeting that Anhui will seize the strategic opportunity of the 15th Five-Year Plan period to build robots and embodied intelligence into an emerging pillar industry. It is planned that by 2030, the output of industrial robots will rank among the top in China, the output of humanoid robots will be in the first echelon nationwide, and the output of robots in more than 10 segmented fields such as spraying, explosion protection, and warehousing logistics will take the lead in China. By 2035, a robot industry cluster with important national influence will be built.

At present, intelligent robots have been listed as one of the six emerging pillar industries that China focuses on fostering during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that in 2025, the operating revenue of enterprises above designated size in China's robot industry exceeded 300 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of over 20% in the past five years. The Development Research Center of the State Council predicts that the domestic embodied intelligence market will reach 400 billion yuan in 2030 and is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan in 2035.

According to the official statement of Anhui, robots and embodied intelligence are the industries in Anhui that have "the most favorable conditions and the strongest confidence" to take the lead in making breakthroughs.

Anhui's confidence first comes from its solid industrial foundation.

As is known to all, Anhui is a major province with a strong automotive industry. In 2025, Anhui's automobile output reached 3.6865 million units, and the output of new energy vehicles reached 1.7941 million units, both of which ranked first in China. At present, Anhui has gathered 7 complete vehicle enterprises and more than 3,000 auto parts enterprises above designated size.

The underlying technologies of automobiles and robots are highly homologous, and technologies such as the three core electric systems of new energy vehicles, precision manufacturing, sensors, and model algorithms can be directly migrated and applied to the robot sector.

On the other hand, automobile factories themselves are also "training grounds" for robots. In Anhui, robot and embodied intelligence technologies have been deeply embedded in the whole chain of the automotive industry, empowering links including R&D and design, complete vehicle manufacturing, testing and verification.

At present, Anhui has formed an industrial layout of "dual-core leadership with multi-point support" led by Hefei and Wuhu. There are more than 660 enterprises in the whole robot industry chain. The total scale of the robot industry and its industrial competitiveness rank 5th in China, and the export volume of industrial robots ranks 2nd nationwide.

However, obvious shortcomings still exist.

Compared with provinces and municipalities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang, there is a generational gap between Anhui's large model and complete machine products and the advanced products at home and abroad. The province is short of enterprises producing key core components such as reducers, power batteries, sensors, and micro special motors, the industrial chain is not yet complete, and industrial agglomeration has not been fully formed.

The Department of Industry and Information Technology of Anhui Province also admitted earlier that the development of Anhui's humanoid robot industry still faces problems such as slow progress in key technologies, insufficient intelligence at the brain end, and lack of compound talents who have a good command of algorithm, mechanics and control.

Facing such a situation, Anhui has chosen to "make forward-looking layout and upgrade its development strategies".

In accordance with the latest deployment, Anhui will intensify its layout in sectors including complete machines, core components, intelligent models, and after-market services, and deepen the integrated development of the automotive and robot industries. It will build enterprise platforms with ecological leading capacity in a differentiated and systematic manner, and take the robot industry as a key direction for policy support such as the provincial science and technology research plan and industrial chain collaborative innovation.

Meanwhile, the province will also promote the work of "attracting investment and talent" in a coordinated manner, and targetedly attract outstanding complete machine enterprises, key component enterprises and ecological partners from across the globe and the whole country.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "City Evolution Theory", written by Liu Yanmei, and published by 36Kr with authorization.