In 2025, driven by the strong momentum of artificial intelligence (AI) globally, the laser industry saw rapid expansion in micro-machining applications such as integrated circuits and semiconductor materials.
China saw particularly high investment enthusiasm in related equipment. Sectors like new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaics—where laser manufacturing equipment is used—recovered from their earlier declines. Fueled by personalized consumption and emotional value, the global consumer-grade laser equipment market experienced explosive growth.
However, the laser cutting equipment market remained weak in North America and Europe, continuing the softness from 2024 into 2025. At the same time, demand in North America and Europe for imported equipment from China kept increasing. Since the end of the pandemic, China’s trade surplus in laser machine tools has grown sixfold, reaching nearly $1.5 billion USD.
In 2025, China’s laser equipment market showed an overall rebound trend, with total sales revenue reaching $132.14 billion USD (958 billion CNY), a year-on-year increase of 6.8%. It is expected that the growth rate of China’s laser equipment market revenue will remain around 7% in 2026.
Breakdown by sector:
Industrial sector: $75.34 billion USD (546.2 billion CNY), +2%. The AI computing power supply chain drove strong demand for precision machining in integrated circuits and semiconductor materials. Demand for PCB processing, TGV through-hole technology, and wafer cutting remained robust, with significantly increased sales of ultrafast lasers.
Information sector: $28.32 billion USD (205.3 billion CNY), +8.5%. AI boosted the data center and high-speed communication industries, with optical module shipments driving the iteration and product growth of co-packaged optics (CPO) technology. Orders for continuous-wave (CW) lasers continued to grow.
Commercial sector: $17.37 billion USD (125.9 billion CNY), +28%. There was a substantial increase in desktop and consumer-grade laser equipment, with surging demand for laser engraving, 3D printing, and desktop CNC machines.
Scientific research and medical laser equipment grew by 10% and 5%, respectively.
As of the end of 2025, there were more than 12,000 active laser enterprises in China, showing a recovery in numbers. Over the past decade, the number of laser companies in China has shown a fluctuating trend: from 2017 to 2021, driven by industrial upgrading and smart manufacturing policies, the number grew at an average annual rate of about 10%; in 2022, due to the pandemic and industry adjustments, there was a decline of about 10%. Although a slight recovery followed, downstream demand contraction accelerated the clearing of low-end capacity and structural adjustments, leading to a notable drop in 2024. In the next two years, the number of enterprises is expected to hover around 12,000, as the industry enters a phase of stock optimization, quality improvement, and efficiency enhancement.
Data source: China Optics and Optoelectronics Manufacturers Association, “2026 China Laser Industry Development Report”; Hubei Laser Industry Association
