WIPO GII 2026: Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou Leads World’s Top Innovation Clusters
New Delhi : The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released an advance excerpt of its 19th Global Innovation Index (GII), highlighting key tech hubs across middle-income economies ahead of its full launch on September 29.
The Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou region has emerged as the world’s largest innovation cluster, followed by Tokyo–Yokohama and San Jose–San Francisco, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Global Innovation Index (GII) 2026.
The other two clusters in the top five are Beijing and Seoul.
WIPO identifies innovation clusters by looking at the concentration of patent filings, scientific publications and venture capital activity in different cities and regions.
Top five innovation clusters :
- Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou – China/Hong Kong
- Tokyo–Yokohama – Japan
- San Jose–San Francisco – United States
- Beijing – China
- Seoul – South Korea
Together, these five clusters account for around 32.9% of global PCT patent applications, or roughly one in every three such applications worldwide.
China and the US dominate the list
China has the highest number of clusters in the global Top 100, with 25 clusters, followed by the United States with 20.
Germany has seven clusters, while India and the United Kingdom have four clusters each. Bengaluru is India's leading cluster, while London is the UK's highest-ranked cluster.
Among the Indian clusters, Mumbai ranks 43rd, Bengaluru 25th and Chennai 79th in the 2026 list.
Asia remains a major innovation hub
The 2026 ranking shows a strong concentration of innovation activity in Asia, Europe and North America. The Asia-Pacific region has 36 of the world's top 100 clusters, followed by Europe with 30 and Northern America with 23.
WIPO's cluster ranking highlights how cities with universities, researchers, companies, investors and strong R&D networks are becoming important centres for developing and commercialising new technologies.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2026/article_0013.html
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