Does Digital–Intelligence Policy Synergy Foster Firms’ Key Core Technology Breakthroughs? Evidence from China

Amid intensifying global competition, key core technology breakthroughs have become central to advancing technological self-reliance and strengthening national productive capacity. Using panel data on Chinese A-share listed firms from 2011 to 2023, we adopt a difference-in-differences framework to identify the effect of digital–intelligence policy synergy on firm-level key core technology breakthroughs. The empirical results show that digital–intelligence policy synergy significantly promotes firms’ key core technology breakthroughs, and this finding remains robust to a battery of robustness checks, including a double machine learning approach. Mechanism analyses indicate that digital–intelligence policy synergy promotes breakthroughs through three channels: deeper technology convergence between the digital economy and the real economy, improved industry–research compatibility, and the accumulation of human capital trained for digital–intelligence. Heterogeneity analyses further suggest that the effect is more pronounced among state-owned enterprises, firms in strategic emerging industries, and firms located in regions with stronger intellectual property protection. Overall, this study offers empirical evidence that orchestrating policy synergies is critical for fostering an innovation ecosystem conducive to technological self-reliance.