The Hefei National High-Tech Industry Development Zone has placed significant emphasis on developing the software industry, building a distinctive software industrial cluster. The zone is home to more than 1,600 key enterprises in specialty fields such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuit design, quantum information, and cybersecurity. From January to October, the zone's software sector generated 52.1 billion yuan ($7.19 billion) in revenue, a 7% year-on-year increase.

The first phase of the Hefei Software Park. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

The zone has long prioritized the software industry, with emerging platforms demonstrating substantial development strengths. The zone is home to nearly 90 innovation platforms, fostering efficient collaboration between industry, academia, research, and application. Additionally, the zone is focused on cultivating innovative enterprises and commercializing sci-tech breakthroughs, with more than 600 software companies participating in the creation of over 120 international and domestic standards and obtaining more than 30,000 intellectual properties.

The zone boasts a strong foundation for intelligent voice and cognitive intelligence, with the iFlytek Spark large model leading the country in AI development. The iFlytek Spark 4.0 Turbo, unveiled at the Global 1024 Developer Festival 2024, outperforms GPT-4 Turbo in core capabilities.

The zone is also a major player in quantum technology, with 20 enterprises engaged in independent research and development in areas such as quantum communication and quantum computing, ranking first in China. The zone has fostered the country's first public quantum company and two unicorn startups in the sector.

The second phase of the Hefei Software Park. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

In addition to its strong focus on industry development, the zone has established the Hefei Scenario Application Innovation Promotion Center, the country's first specialized institution for scenario innovation. Since its launch, the center has focused on exploring and matching software industry scenarios. It has organized 21 events in areas such as the industrial internet and cybersecurity, resulting in more than 50 successful collaborations.

The zone has also launched a service platform, which has organized nearly 90 regular matching activities centered around the software industry, attracting more than 3,000 enterprises.

The third phase of the Hefei Software Park. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

Looking forward, the zone plans to establish a one-stop financing and investment matching service for software enterprises. It will continue to promote the deep integration of its software industry with Hefei's strategic emerging industries and accelerate the upgrading of software products.