Robust growth in the electronics industry and high-tech manufacturing helped drive a double-digit increase in the profits of China's major industrial firms during the first nine months of 2026, official data showed Tuesday.

Profits of major industrial firms rose 15.5% year on year to 6.03 trillion yuan (about $900 billion) during the January-September period, maintaining double-digit growth since the beginning of the year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In September alone, industrial profits increased 14.4% year on year.

The electronics industry emerged as a key growth driver, with profits doubling from a year earlier and contributing 9.6% to the overall increase in industrial profits.

Meanwhile, profits in high-tech manufacturing surged 52% year on year, outpacing the overall industrial average by 36.5%, as demand in areas such as AI computing power and data center infrastructure continued to expand.

In the first three quarters, high-tech manufacturing accounted for 25.5% of the total profits generated by China's major industrial firms, up 6.2% from a year earlier.

As high-end manufacturing continues to advance and new quality productive forces take shape at a faster pace, China's industrial sector is steadily shifting toward a more advanced and innovation-driven structure, NBS statistician Yu Weining noted.

Earlier data showed China's industrial sector continued to gain momentum in the first three quarters of 2026, with the value-added industrial output increasing by 5.3% year on year.