News Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou overtakes Tokyo-Yokohama as world's top innovation hotspot

[thomas]

Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou has overtaken Tokyo-Yokohama to claim the title of the world's leading innovation hub, according to the United Nations. In its 2025 Global Innovation Index, the U.N.'s World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) reported that the Chinese cluster surpassed its Japanese counterpart after the agency expanded its assessment criteria.

Previously, the rankings had been based solely on patent filings and scientific publications. Still, this year, WIPO also factored in levels of venture capital investment. The agency explained that such investment provides a clearer picture of how research and technology are being converted into start-ups, products, and services that reach the marketplace.

The new ranking showed that San Jose-San Francisco has now overtaken Beijing, Seoul and Shanghai-Suzhou to grab the third place. London has shot up from 21st to eighth place, while Bengaluru has likewise jumped from 56th place to 21st on the back of venture capital deals. [...] Overall, the change in methodology has seen East Asian clusters drop while US clusters have made gains. The change boosted Indian clusters, while those in the European Union -- where the venture capital markets are sometimes less vigorous than in the United States -- have tended to see a decline. The top 100 innovation clusters are spread across 33 economies, uniting "top universities, researchers, inventors, venture capitalists and research and development firms in driving forward breakthrough ideas", WIPO said. By country, China for the third consecutive year led the ranking with the most clusters in the top 100, at 24, followed by the United States with 22 clusters. WIPO said the clusters with the most innovation-intensive activity in proportion to population size were San Jose-San Francisco in the United States, followed by Britain's Cambridge.

Top 15 innovation clusters in 2025

1. Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou (China)
2. Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan)
3. San Jose-San Francisco (United States)
4. Beijing (China)
5. Seoul (South Korea)
6. Shanghai-Suzhou (China)
7. New York City (United States)
8. London (Britain)
9. Boston-Cambridge (United States)
10. Los Angeles (United States)
11. Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto (Japan)
12. Paris (France)
13. Hangzhou (China)
14. San Diego (United States)
15. Nanjing (China)

Chinese cluster now world's top innovation hotspot: UN

Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou has overtaken Tokyo-Yokohama to become the world's top cluster for innovation, the United Nations said Monday.The agency said Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou and Tokyo-Yokohama "make a massive contribution to global scientific publications and patenting outputs"...

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