A portion of China’s Greater Bay Area has been named the world’s largest innovation cluster, underscoring Beijing’s drive for technological self-reliance at a time of rising geopolitical uncertainties with the United States.
The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou technology hub – the heart of the bay area plan – has overtaken Tokyo-Yokohama to become the world’s largest innovation cluster, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) 2025 Global Innovation Index released on Monday.
It marks the first time the region has topped the global ranking after holding the No 2 spot for five consecutive years. Further down the list, the San Jose-San Francisco cluster jumped three spots to third place, followed by Beijing in fourth, then Seoul, Shanghai–Suzhou and New York City.
The Macau-Zhuhai cluster, another part of the area, made the world’s top 100 for the second year running, highlighting the development plan’s global influence in technological innovation.
Spanning Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and several other cities in southern China’s Guangdong province, the Greater Bay Area is at the heart of Beijing’s push to innovate in frontier sectors like advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and biotechnology. The area’s sizeable talent pool and rapid capital flow have aided these efforts.
China now has 24 innovation clusters in the global top 100, outpacing the US count of 22 and Germany’s seven to become the most represented country in the ranking.