A researcher works in the brain analysis and brain simulation lab in Guangming Science City in this Nov. 27 photo. Photos from Xinhua except otherwise stated

Honor's mobile phone production factory in Pingshan District.

A humanoid robot undergoes testing at LIMX Dynamics in Nanshan District.

A robot barista makes coffee at Minghu Park in Guangming District.

UBTECH's industrial humanoid robot Walker S1 works in a BYD factory. Courtesy of UBTECH

The HarmonyOS Next launch ceremony in Shenzhen on Oct. 22.

Editor's note:

As we reflect on 2024, Shenzhen remains committed to advancing high-level opening up, actively integrating into the new development pattern, and attracting foreign investment. We're introducing this special series, "2024 in Review," to highlight the city's progress across various sectors. This marks the fourth installment in our series of reports.

In 2024, Shenzhen prioritized advancing the integration of technological and industrial innovation. To build a comprehensive "city of innovation," the city is guiding society to invest more in innovation while enhancing technology, higher education, and the industrial system.

In 2024, Shenzhen saw a boom in artificial intelligence (AI), unleashing incredible power to fuel basic research and drive industrial transformation. With a forward-looking strategy, Shenzhen has released nearly 200 "city + AI" applications, positioning itself as a global leader in AI innovation.

Innovation facilities 

Shenzhen currently has more than 4,000 innovation facilities, providing the city with the capability and confidence to advance cutting-edge technologies. These innovation facilities are making significant progress. 

For example, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Comprehensive National Science Center is currently under construction. The Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation and the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory are working well and promoting deeper integration. The international headquarters of the Greater Bay Area National Center of Technology Innovation was launched in Shenzhen.

A total of 160 high-end science and innovation projects are being implemented within the Shenzhen Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone. The Hetao Shenzhen Park has formed six scientific and technology clusters for national major scientific research cooperation, unicorn companies in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and startups launched by young people from Hong Kong and Macao. 

In Guangming Science City, a series of major scientific research infrastructure projects, including the Pengcheng Cloud III and 11 platforms for cutting-edge cross-disciplinary research, have been developed.

R&D investment 

On Oct. 22, 2024, Chinese tech giant Huawei released HarmonyOS Next, its self-developed operating system built independently of Android architecture, in Shenzhen. The operating system has shown significant improvements in fluency, performance, security, and other aspects. 

HarmonyOS Next is fully independent from Android and iOS, featuring its own operating kernel, programming language, AI framework, and other components developed without using Linux kernel or Android open-source code. On Nov. 26, Huawei launched its Mate 70 smartphone series, the first to be powered by its fully homegrown operating system, marking its official entry into commercial use.

On Nov. 18, BYD's 10-millionth new energy vehicle rolled off the assembly line at its production base in Xiaomo, Shenzhen. As BYD's chairman and president Wang Chuanfu stated, it embodies the brand's spirit of daring to think, create, and persevere to achieve what BYD is today. As of now, BYD has 11 research institutes and employs over 110,000 research and development (R&D) staff members. Its investment in R&D has exceeded 100 billion yuan.

Data show that Shenzhen's investment in R&D reached 223.66 billion yuan (US$31.6 billion) in 2023, an increase of 18.9% year on year, marking the ninth consecutive year of double-digit growth. Expenditure on R&D by Shenzhen enterprises totaled 208.5 billion yuan, accounting for 93.3% of the city's total investment in R&D. 

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster ranked second in the 2024 Global Innovation Index (GII), according to a release by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in August last year.

At present, Shenzhen has 25,000 nationally recognized high-tech companies, making it the leading city in China for PCT international applications for 20 consecutive years.

Innovation chains

Shenzhen has pushed forward the integration of innovation, industry, financing, and talent to create a system with innovation and industrial chains as its foundation and financing and talent chains as key supports, showcasing Shenzhen’s unique features and advantages.

Based on the mechanism of the four chains of integration, Shenzhen has cultivated several strategic emerging industrial clusters focused on synthetic biology, optical information, cell and gene technology, quantum information, brain science and brain-computer engineering, the low-altitude economy, and intelligent robotics.

Scientific and technological innovation is a crucial driving force for economic development, and talent is the core resource for scientific and technological innovation. Shenzhen is implementing increasingly proactive, open, and effective talent and innovation policies. 

Currently, 920 Shenzhen scholars have been recognized on a list of the world's top 2% of scientists. The city is home to 26,000 high-level talent, more than 220,000 returnees from studying abroad, and nearly 7 million talent from various fields.

To support scientific and technological innovation, it is essential to utilize effective financial strategies. In 2024, Shenzhen released 20 measures for the financial support of scientific and technological innovation. 

The city has established the Shenzhen Angel Investment Fund, which has a scale of 10 billion yuan. To date, the cumulative number of effective decision-making sub-funds has reached 84. The city has invested in 955 projects, fostering six "unicorns" and 188 "potential unicorns." 

Additionally, the city has established a scientific and technological innovation seed fund of 2 billion yuan.