A deliberate shift in the structure of China's economy is showing up in the data on company registrations and deregistrations. According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, in the first half of 2026 firms in some sectors with excess capacity exited in an orderly way, while new companies surged in emerging fields such as generative AI and humanoid robots.
Exit from sectors with excess capacity
In some industries that expanded rapidly and then fell into fierce price competition, the number of company deregistrations rose. In the first half, 7,632 new energy vehicle-related companies were deregistered, up 4.6 percent year on year; 5,089 photovoltaic firms, up 8.3 percent; and 155 lithium battery firms, up 12.3 percent. Amid overcapacity and involution-style competition, a batch of weaker companies left the market.
A surge in emerging fields
At the same time, new companies multiplied in emerging and high-end fields. In the first half, 55,000 companies newly registered in generative AI, up 28 percent, and 116,000 in humanoid robots, up 9.5 percent. High-end manufacturing was equally striking: new registrations in spacecraft and launch vehicle manufacturing rose 185.7 percent year on year, optical fiber and cable manufacturing 129.4 percent, and integrated circuit manufacturing 24.2 percent.
