The National Data Resource Survey Report (2025) was officially released on April 29th at the 9th Digital China Summit. The report reveals that China's total annual data production reached 52.26 zettabytes (ZB) in 2025, marking a year-on-year increase of 27.28%. This growth rate accelerated by 2.28 percentage points compared to the previous year. China's data production accounted for approximately 27.44% of the global total.
Enterprises emerged as the primary drivers of data production, contributing nearly 90% of the total data output increase, which highlights the significant progress in industrial digital and intelligent transformation. Key sectors such as industrial manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and software and information technology services recorded substantial increases in data production, with year-on-year growths of 1.27 ZB, 1.22 ZB, and 0.92 ZB, respectively. These sectors effectively played leading and stabilizing roles in the data economy. Emerging fields, including embodied AI and the low-altitude economy, experienced exceptionally high growth rates in data production, reaching 477.78% and 75%, respectively.
The total national data storage capacity reached 2.53 ZB, a 21.05% increase year-on-year. Structured data storage amounted to 0.56 ZB, surging by 43.59% and accounting for 22.13% of the total data storage. This indicates a continuous improvement in data quality and an accelerated transition towards data that is more computable and analyzable.
Infrastructure development for computing power advanced steadily. The full implementation of the "East Data West Computing" project and the accelerated construction of a national integrated computing network have steadily enhanced the supply of intelligent computing power. By the end of 2025, the national intelligent computing power capacity reached 1.59 million PFLOPS (FP16). The shift from general-purpose computing to intelligent computing is accelerating, establishing it as critical infrastructure supporting AI development. The advantages of concentrating intelligent computing resources are becoming evident, with the eight national computing hubs (including ten major clusters) accounting for over 80% of the nation's total intelligent computing capacity.
The utilization and development of data resources have become more efficient. Initiatives such as the "Data Factor X" action, demonstration projects for activating public data, efforts to enhance data efficiency in state-owned enterprises, pilot programs for national data infrastructure, and the development plan for trusted data spaces are progressing deeply. These efforts are fostering deeper integration of data applications and scenario development, accelerating the release of data value. The utilization of public data resources has yielded significant results, with rapid growth in the volume of data shared, opened, and authorized for operation. The number of datasets requested for sharing increased by nearly 30% year-on-year, while the volumes of openly shared and authorized operational public data grew by 31.71% and 53.96%, respectively. Public data is catalyzing the accelerated integration and application of data across various industries, covering scenarios in industrial development, education technology, healthcare, public services, and grassroots governance.
Corporate enthusiasm for leveraging data is intensifying. In 2025, corporate investment in data technology grew by 17.37% year-on-year. The number of corporate data products and services increased by 29.29%, and transaction value rose by 39.8%, indicating a shift where data products and services are becoming core drivers of business growth rather than mere byproducts of digitalization.
Initial results are visible in data circulation and trading. The development of a national integrated data market is accelerating, further stimulating market vitality and speeding up the realization of data value. A market consensus is forming around paying for high-quality data. Data circulation activity continues to rise. In 2025, the total volume of cross-border data flow in China was 142.34 exabytes (EB), up 14.88% year-on-year. Cross-provincial data flow reached 2,949.12 EB, a 19.01% increase, with major economic provinces like Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Henan leading in cross-provincial data flow volume. The total volume of enterprise data circulation was 1,935.36 EB, growing by 25.17% year-on-year. The average data circulation volume of leading platform companies and central state-owned enterprises was over 140 times that of other enterprises, underscoring their reinforced role as data circulation hubs.
Willingness to pay for data is increasing. Among surveyed enterprises, 11.65% reported purchasing data, with related expenditures growing by 22.36% year-on-year. The average spending on data purchases by leading platform companies and central state-owned enterprises was 60 times higher than that of other enterprises. In sectors such as finance, software, and information technology services, the proportion of enterprises that purchased data exceeded 30%, significantly above the industry average.
Data empowerment for artificial intelligence has entered a new phase of large-scale application. The evolution of AI, from general large models to industry-specific vertical models and further towards agentic AI, has expanded data requirements from basic training corpora to high-quality, industry-specific datasets. The survey indicates that in 2025, the total volume of data used for AI training and inference reached 199.48 EB, a 42.86% year-on-year increase. Notably, the volume of inference data reached 101.34 EB, surpassing training data volume for the first time. The number of high-quality datasets exceeded 110,000, with a total scale surpassing 908 petabytes (PB), representing growth rates of 61.13% and 142.58%, respectively. The annual token usage reached approximately 21,100 trillion, establishing tokens as a new metric for AI.
The year 2026 marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period and is designated as the "Year of Data Factor Value Release." Looking ahead, China's advantage in data resource scale is expected to rapidly transform into a value advantage, with data factors playing an increasingly vital role in empowering economic and social development.