(Yicai) Jan. 16 -- The size of Shanghai's three major leading industries, namely integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence, has reached CNY1.8 trillion (USD245.5 billion), according to a government work report released by the Shanghai municipal government yesterday.

Last year, Shanghai launched and operated parent funds of CNY100 billion (USD13.6 billion) for these three industries and future industries, with the aim of guiding capital investments into startups, according to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology.

Shanghai will launch a new round of the Shanghai Plan for the three leading industries and will focus on cutting-edge fields such as cell and gene therapy, brain-computer interfaces, sixth-generation networks, quantum computing and fusion energy.

Shanghai’s three leading industries are entering a new phase of development and AI is playing a key role in this process, Chu Junhao, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the director of the Institute of Optoelectronics at Fudan University, told Yicai.

For example, brain-computer interfaces are driven by AI advances, he said. However, the bidirectional input and output of information can, in turn, enhance the capabilities of AI, further accelerating its transformative impact across various fields.

Shanghai, with its concentration of talent, cluster of top-tier universities and strong scientific and technological research, has the necessary conditions to advance these major cutting-edge industries, Chu said.

However, research on basic theories and methodologies in these sectors needs to be strengthened, and at the same time technologies need to be guided towards industrial application and new opportunities explored, he said.

Editor: Kim Taylor