BEIJING, CHINA / RankWire.AI / – In the first half of 2026, China’s digital sector generated a total revenue of 20.71 trillion yuan, marking a 13.6% increase compared to the previous year. The sector’s net profit reached 1.79 trillion yuan, reflecting a 19.3% rise. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology indicated that the growth rate of revenue accelerated by 4.1 percentage points from the same period last year. The profit margin for the industry stood at 8.6%, which is 0.7 percentage points higher than before.
Major digital hubs across China contributed the bulk of the national revenue. The top 10 provincial-level markets collectively produced 17.21 trillion yuan, increasing by 13.2%. These regions accounted for 83.1% of the country’s total digital industry revenue and drove 87% of the overall growth in revenue. Notable among these are Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. The central region alone reported 2.86 trillion yuan in digital industry revenue, representing a 28.3% rise from a year earlier.
During this period, China’s digital infrastructure also saw significant expansion. As of the end of June, the country had 5.102 million 5G base stations. The network supporting gigabit services included 32.86 million 10G PON ports. The number of 5G RedCap base stations hit 2.247 million, while intelligent computing capacity surged to 2,185 EFLOPS measured in FP16, a 177% increase from the previous year. The overall utilization rate of computing resources reached 71.4%.
China’s Digital Infrastructure Develops Rapidly
China established 52 intelligent computing centers by the end of June, each equipped with more than 10,000 accelerator cards. Over 80,000 private 5G industry networks operate nationwide. Applications leveraging 5G and gigabit optical networks cover 94 key sectors of the economy. The country also has more than 26,000 active 5G and industrial internet projects, with 1,260 classified 5G factories established across the nation, according to authorities.
Digital manufacturing demonstrated faster growth in both output and earnings during the first half of the year. The electronics industry’s value-added output increased by 14.8% year-over-year. Revenue from leading electronic information manufacturers reached 12.15 trillion yuan, a rise of 17.8%. Their combined profits jumped 66%, reaching 703.6 billion yuan. Strong contributions to profit growth came from the integrated circuits, computer manufacturing, and specialized electronic materials sectors. The growth rate of electronics output exceeded the overall industrial growth by 9.4 percentage points.
Software and IT Service Sectors Continue to Grow
The sector of digital services in China also experienced substantial expansion during the first six months of 2026. Total telecommunications business volume grew by 8.3% when measured at constant prices compared to the previous year. Revenue from software and information technology services increased by 9.5%. Software product revenues went up by 6.9%, while IT services revenue rose by 10.4%. Major internet corporations reported a 10.1% increase in revenue and a 16.6% boost in total profit compared to the same period in 2025.
These figures highlight that technology-driven services continue to outpace general economic growth. The National Bureau of Statistics reported China’s economy expanded by 4.7% in the first half of 2026. The value added from information transmission, software, and information technology services grew by 10.7% during the same timeframe. China’s digital economy encompasses electronic information manufacturing, telecommunications, software and IT services, and internet-related offerings, which collectively form a vital segment of the country’s broader digital development.