On the morning of May 21st, at the "Low altitude Economy" forum of the "Global Spatio Temporal Intelligence Expo" (WGDC2026), Zhang Di, a partner and senior analyst at Taibo Think Tank, officially released the "White Paper on Low altitude Intelligent Connected Technology and Applications". She pointed out that low altitude intelligent connectivity is moving from "single technology application" to "systematic infrastructure construction"; The market is still driven by government investment, but commercialization on the application side has already begun; The focus of competition is gradually shifting from hardware capabilities to platform capabilities, collaboration capabilities, and operational capabilities.
Zhang Di stated that low altitude intelligent connectivity refers to a complete set of support systems that integrate "hard infrastructure" and "soft infrastructure" to support the safe and efficient operation of low altitude economy. Its core value lies in solving the systemic safety and efficiency management problems caused by new features such as "descending flight altitude, increasing flight density, and coupling of heterogeneous aircraft" after the opening up of airspace. It is a necessary pre investment for low altitude economy to move towards "large-scale commercial operation".
She elaborates on low altitude intelligent connectivity from multiple dimensions, including connotation, technological composition, development and evolution, industrial chain map, market mechanism, and policy analysis. It is particularly pointed out that the market structure is rapidly evolving from "small and scattered" to "large and integrated". Projects with a budget of less than 1 million yuan have decreased from 48.7% in 2023 to 27.6% in the first half of 2025, while projects with a budget of 10 million yuan have increased from 19.1% in 2023 to over 36% in 2024 and the first half of 2025, becoming the range with the highest number of projects. Projects with a budget of 100 million yuan have grown more than fourfold. The project volume is increasing, with more and more projects moving from tens of thousands or millions to tens of millions or billions of yuan, and the market entering the stage of system construction.
From the perspective of bidding projects, the regional concentration is relatively obvious, with Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places having more projects and more active investments. The three provinces together contributed more than 40% of the project quantity and 50% of the total project amount, forming a clear "first tier"; Shandong, Sichuan, and Hubei follow closely behind, ranking in the "second tier".
Zhang Di also pointed out that in digital base projects, low altitude flight service management, regulatory platforms, digital twin bases, and sky ground integrated command and control systems account for over 30%. Regional digital low altitude, urban intelligent air traffic control, and smart services for specific application scenarios are also growing. The trend of related applications will shift from "building a base" to "using a base".
