Relying on its robust manufacturing foundation, Tongzhou District in Nantong City has been strategically advancing its transformation toward intelligent manufacturing. The district has methodically developed its artificial intelligence industry from the ground up, progressively establishing a comprehensive industrial ecosystem centered on computing power infrastructure, enterprise clustering, application scenarios, and policy support. This strategic approach is solidifying its position as a hub for new quality productive forces on the northern wing of the Yangtze River Delta.

Building a Foundation with Domestic Computing Power to Make It Accessible and Affordable for Enterprises

In 2025, Tongzhou District completed the construction of Nantong's first fully domestic-made Shengteng intelligent computing center. The initial phase, comprising 116P of computing power, is now operational and currently running at an 80% utilization rate. To complement this infrastructure, the district introduced a computing voucher subsidy policy that can reduce computing costs for small and medium-sized enterprises by up to 70%. Additionally, an innovative MaaS lightweight subscription service has been launched, lowering enterprise computing costs by 30% compared to public cloud alternatives. Recently, Nantong Candela Intelligent Cloud Platform Co., Ltd., located in the Nantong High-tech Zone, successfully redeemed the city's first "computing voucher," receiving a subsidy exceeding 50,000 yuan. The company's general manager, Li Hongfei, stated: "With the computing voucher, we now spend just over 20,000 yuan per month to access computing services valued at 75,000 yuan, significantly reducing our usage costs." While a 50,000-yuan subsidy may not be a massive sum, it conveys a clear signal: Tongzhou is not only building computing infrastructure but is also committed to delivering it directly to enterprises, ensuring that local small and medium-sized businesses can access and afford domestic computing power.

Building upon this computing power base, Tongzhou District is leveraging its strong integrated circuit industry foundation to propel the AI industry toward a new phase of clustering, scaling, and value enhancement. Several core enterprises based in Tongzhou are actively positioning themselves within the global AI supply chain. Leading companies such as Jianghai Electronics and Shengyi Technology have secured critical positions in high-speed interconnect, PCB, supercapacitors, and copper-clad laminates, forming a complete ecosystem that covers the entire computing hardware chain. Since the start of this year, Tongzhou District has newly signed and registered 18 major AI industry projects each with investments exceeding 100 million yuan, with a total planned investment of 10.62 billion yuan. Notably, 26 enterprises have been recognized as provincial-level advanced intelligent factories, setting a new historical record.

Developing National Industry Benchmarks Through Distinctive Application Scenarios

If computing power serves as the tool, then distinctive application scenarios act as the testing ground for AI. In 2025, the industrial output value of Tongzhou's eight key industry chains surpassed 130 billion yuan, with electronic components, new materials, and high-end home textiles each exceeding 10 billion yuan in annual output, providing an extensive "testing ground" for AI in the district. As a nationally significant home textile production base, Tongzhou has historically faced industry pain points including lengthy design cycles, high costs, and inefficient logistics with substantial losses. In 2025, the launch of "Fangzhiyun," the country's first home textile-specific large model, provided an AI solution to these challenges. The platform's AIGC large model can generate multiple high-fidelity design drafts within 30 seconds, while its 360-degree scene replication technology enables virtual previews. This innovative model compresses the development cycle for a single product from 30 days to just 2.5 days, reduces costs from 2,000 yuan to 245 yuan, and improves efficiency by more than tenfold. In April of this year, Jiangsu Jintaiyang Textile Technology Co., Ltd. incubated "Sansheng Home Textile Full-Chain AI Platform," the industry's first full-chain AI platform. This platform not only improves design output efficiency by dozens of times but also leverages data-driven insights and trend forecasting to advance the industry's transformation from manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing. On the distribution side, the "Zhaojiafang Network" digital industrial platform has developed the country's first unmanned intelligent logistics system for the home textile industry, known as the "Star Ring Hub." This system operates 264 L4 autonomous vehicles covering over 3,700 service points, handling more than 200,000 orders daily and reducing the entire supply chain's handling steps to just two. To date, autonomous delivery vehicles within the Nantong Home Textile City have safely operated for over 8 million kilometers, truly reducing costs and improving efficiency in traditional home textile logistics through digital technology.

Tongzhou's AI applications extend far beyond home textiles. To date, 348 industrial enterprises above designated size in Tongzhou District have completed "AI + Manufacturing" online diagnostics, ranking second in the city and laying a solid foundation for expanding industrial AI scenarios across the region. Haohan's smart operation and maintenance system for power transmission lines has been recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as a national AI exemplary case. Nantong Sijian's AI-based housing safety inspection and Leer Environmental's AI governance solutions have both been selected as major digital society scenarios at the provincial level. Additionally, four enterprises have been selected for the city's top ten AI exemplary cases, ranking first in the city for the number of selections.

As the "15th Five-Year Plan" begins, Tongzhou District is anchoring its strategic positioning as an "intelligent manufacturing powerhouse with hub-enabled empowerment," clearly setting the goal of empowering the real economy with AI and building itself into a hub for new quality productive forces on the northern wing of the Yangtze River Delta. The district now hosts over 60 AI-related enterprises spanning eight key segments including computing infrastructure, intelligent connectivity, data algorithms, and terminal integration. In 2025, the output value of the AI industry chain in Tongzhou District grew by 146% year-on-year. At the beginning of 2026, Tongzhou District took the lead in issuing the "Tongzhou District AI Industry Development Three-Year Action Plan (2026-2028)," which clearly outlines building a "5+2+1" full-chain AI development system with fundamental hardware as the base, software algorithms as support, and terminal applications as the driver. This plan aims to accelerate the transition from a "manufacturing powerhouse" to an "intelligent manufacturing powerhouse."

Looking ahead, Tongzhou District will pursue precise investment attraction in sectors such as AI sensing chips, industrial large models, intelligent detection, and brain-computer medical applications, aiming to secure more industry chain leaders and regional headquarters projects within the year. The district will also promote the implementation of more AI demonstration applications in fields including automotive components, intelligent equipment, and the low-altitude economy. Leveraging the Silicon-based Oasis OPC Innovation Community and the Shengteng Intelligent Computing Center, Tongzhou will continue to improve its "computing power + algorithm + data" technology transfer service system. By effectively utilizing industrial funds and alliance platforms, the district seeks to develop a set of replicable and scalable practical experiences in data governance and digital-real integration, making every effort to become a leading AI industry cluster hub on the northern wing of the Yangtze River Delta.