In the A-share market in 2025, the acceleration of low orbit satellite networking and the explosion of terminal products will make the satellite track the focus of attention, and the stock prices of related stocks will continue to rise. But as retail investors chase higher prices, a group of institutional funds have quietly shifted towards a neglected core area - industrial software. On January 8, 2026, the Industrial Software Index surged 2.53% in a single day, with a total market value exceeding 1.27 trillion yuan. Several leading stocks rose more than 10%, confirming the potential of the "hidden dark horse" with actual performance.
Most people's understanding of industrial software is still limited to "factory programming tools", but they are unaware that this "invisible cornerstone of manufacturing" is experiencing a triple resonance of policy, technology, and demand. Unlike the short-term hype around satellite tracks, the rise of industrial software is an inevitable result of China's manufacturing upgrading, and its long-term investment value is worth exploring in depth. This article combines industry logic, benchmark cases, and stock selection logic to take everyone to see the core opportunities of this track.
1、 Supported by the three core logics, the rise of industrial software is by no means accidental
1. Domestic substitution from "optional" to "mandatory", with a gap of billions to be filled
Industrial software is the "soul" of manufacturing: the development of new energy vehicles requires CAD drawing, CAE simulation, and MES system for production line control; From mobile phone chips to domestically produced large aircraft, none can be separated from industrial software support. But for a long time, the domestic high-end market has been monopolized by overseas markets - the overseas market share of CAD field exceeds 90%, CAE exceeds 85%, and the import dependence of EDA chip design software is as high as 97%, which not only drives up costs, but also hides technical security risks.
With the acceleration of manufacturing upgrading, domestic substitution has become a necessity. Nowadays, domestic industrial software has made multiple breakthroughs: the market share of domestic CAx software in the automotive and electronics fields has reached 28%, the market share of domestic MES systems in the steel industry has exceeded 40%, and domestic process design software in the shipbuilding field has successfully broken the overseas monopoly. According to industry estimates, there is a market space of hundreds of billions of yuan for domestic substitution in the three core areas of CAD, CAE, and EDA alone, becoming the core growth engine of the track.
2. AI empowers value reconstruction, transforming industrial software into an "intelligent brain"
If domestic substitution is the foundation, the deep integration of AI and industrial software will be the largest increment in 2026. In January 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on the Special Action of 'Artificial Intelligence+Manufacturing'", which clearly promotes the integration of AI and industrial software. The plan is to launch 1000 industrial intelligent agents and promote 500 typical application scenarios by 2027, injecting strong policy impetus into the track.
The combination of AI and industrial software has been implemented as a tangible industrial value. Dajie Intelligent has broken through key technologies such as industrial grade decision-making algorithms and professional AI model construction, process to structural design knowledge graph construction, intelligent design technology driven by process, and standardized and non-standard structural geometry AI generation. It has developed an intelligent design platform for process equipment, which has been applied to leading enterprises in industries such as automobiles and home appliances, covering stamping, welding, die-casting, injection molding, and other fields. The AI design system eliminates a large number of CAD modeling operations in the equipment design process, freeing engineers from tedious labor and increasing design efficiency by more than 10 times. At the same time, the system can embed personalized design standards for enterprises, avoiding the drawbacks of traditional design that are prone to human errors.
AI enabled MES software can achieve predictive maintenance of equipment, reducing production line downtime by 80%; The penetration rate of AI functions in the new generation PLM system has reached 80%, the drawing review time has been reduced by 60%, and the part reuse rate has been increased by 35%. Data shows that the proportion of Chinese industrial enterprises using big models and intelligent agents has skyrocketed from 9.6% in 2024 to 47.5% in 2025, and the leading industrial AI penetration rate is expected to reach 60% in the next three years. AI is upgrading industrial software from "auxiliary tools" to "cost reduction and efficiency improvement engines".
3. Policy demand is driven by two wheels, ensuring full performance certainty
The explosion of industrial software cannot be separated from the dual support of policies and demand. On the policy side, favorable policies are being implemented intensively: the "Artificial Intelligence+Manufacturing" special action of eight departments provides direction guidance, provides post subsidy for the first version of software application, increases the deduction ratio of R&D expenses to 120%, exempts enterprises from income tax for the first two years before profit, and reduces the collection by half for the next three years. Local support policies with a maximum of 10 million yuan in Shenzhen and 200 million yuan in Jiangsu have been successively introduced, and the digital transformation of central and state-owned enterprises requires the use rate of domestic software to be no less than 70%. These policies are not just a pie in the sky, but directly translated into market orders - by 2025, the total financing in the industrial software field will increase by over 40% year-on-year, and leading companies will have completed B-round or above financing.
On the demand side, the upgrading of the manufacturing industry brings continuous incremental growth. In 2026, as the starting year of the 15th Five Year Plan, the manufacturing industry has entered a new stage of industrialization, and the demand for digital and intelligent transformation has fully exploded. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, intelligent transformation can shorten the R&D cycle of the manufacturing industry by 20.7%, improve production efficiency by 34.8%, and reduce the defect rate by 27.4%. Such achievements encourage enterprises to actively embrace industrial software. In terms of market size, the revenue of industrial software products in China will reach 282.4 billion yuan in 2023, and is expected to exceed 400 billion yuan by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of over 15%. Among them, the growth rate of high-end R&D and design products will exceed 30%.
2、 Three major hard indicators for stock selection, avoiding conceptual traps
Although the prospects for the industrial software industry are promising, there is still a mix of good and bad, and it is necessary to focus on core indicators to select high-quality targets
1. Scene adaptation: Focus on high barrier segmented fields
Research and development design (CAD/CAE/EDA) and industrial control (MES/PLC) are the core tracks. The domestic market share in these two fields is less than 30%, and there is ample room for substitution; And the core technologies (such as 3D modeling engines and simulation algorithms) have high barriers, once broken through, they can form long-term competitive advantages. Priority should be given to enterprises that specialize in segmented scenarios, such as semiconductor industry EDA software, aerospace process simulation software, etc. These fields have rigid demand, and overseas enterprises have less obvious advantages. Domestic enterprises have greater opportunities for breakthroughs.
2. Customer quality: Binding high-end manufacturing leaders
The customers of hardcore enterprises are mostly high-end manufacturing enterprises such as new energy vehicle companies, aerospace groups, chip manufacturing leaders, etc. These customers have strong payment ability, stable orders, and high requirements, which can force enterprises to optimize products and form a virtuous cycle of "cooperation iteration expansion". Judgment skills can focus on customer concentration, with the top five customers of high-quality enterprises typically accounting for 30% -50% of revenue, ensuring customer quality while avoiding excessive reliance on a single customer.
3. AI integration: focus on landing instead of riding on hot topics
A true AI+industrial software enterprise needs to meet three conditions: having clear AI enabled products (such as intelligent design platforms, predictive maintenance MES systems); There are verifiable application cases and data support (such as quantitative indicators such as efficiency improvement and cost reduction); R&D investment remains stable, with R&D expense ratios typically above 20%. Like Dajie Intelligent, enterprises that form landing products through independent technology research and development and gain the recognition of industry leaders are the real value objects (relevant cases are quoted from the document issued by Dajie Intelligent official account in January 2026).
3、 2026 Three Major Layout Mainlines, Accurately Seize Opportunities
1. R&D design leader: domestic replacement of core targets
Enterprises that focus on breakthroughs in core technologies in the CAD/CAE/EDA field, whose product performance has approached similar levels overseas, have entered the high-end manufacturing supply chain. With the promotion of domestic substitution, orders are expected to explode, and performance growth may exceed 50%. High gross profit margins (usually over 60%) bring strong profitability resilience.
2. AI+Industrial Software Integration Target: The King of Increment
Focus on enterprises that implement AI in specific scenarios, such as intelligent scheduling MES vendors, equipment predictive maintenance solution providers, AI simulation CAE vendors, etc. The practical value of policy support and cost reduction and efficiency improvement makes these enterprises the core of capital layout with the greatest flexibility.
3. Upstream basic software supporting enterprises: a robust choice
Domestic operating system and database manufacturers, as well as industrial intelligent computing server suppliers, benefit from the expansion of the industrial software industry, especially enterprises that can form "software hardware integration" solutions, which have stronger competitiveness and are suitable for investors pursuing steady growth.
4、 Conclusion: Opportunities for Industrial Software in Long Term Value
Unlike the short-term hype of the satellite track, industrial software is a long-term track that accompanies the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. Its investment value does not lie in daily fluctuations, but in the sustained realization of performance after the implementation of policies. 2026 is a crucial year for the track to explode, and those enterprises that truly have technology, customers, and AI landing capabilities are expected to emerge from the long bull market.
For ordinary investors, it is necessary to break out of the herd mentality, deeply understand the industry logic, focus on core indicators to avoid conceptual traps, and seize this 100 billion level opportunity with a long-term layout mentality.
Work statement: Personal opinion, for reference only. The content of this article is based on the analysis of publicly available information. The market size, localization rate, and other data presented in the article are sourced from authoritative institutions and do not constitute any investment advice or industry guidance.