The ecosystem opportunity for industrial manufacturers

For industrial manufacturers, the most attractive growth opportunities could lie outside of traditional manufacturing. PwC’s Global Industrial Manufacturing Sector Outlook 2026 finds that companies expect 44% of their revenue to come from areas outside of traditional manufacturing by 2030. As AI, climate change, and other megatrends redraw industry boundaries and put value in motion, these companies are reinventing their business and operating models to capitalise. In fact, our Value in motion analysis estimates that the Make domain could contribute $34.2 trillion to global GDP by 2035, representing about a quarter of total output.

To capture that growth, industrial manufacturing (IM) companies anticipate an ecosystem approach to collaboration. Among the ‘future-fit’ companies in this year’s analysis—the fastest, most agile, and most innovative companies our survey identifies—60% rate ecosystem among their top-three growth strategies, versus 52% of other respondents.

The top target sectors for IM partnerships include technology, aerospace and defence, power and utilities, and transportation and logistics. These sectors have several attributes in common. They’re all connected, electrified, automated, and service-rich markets. And they will push manufacturers to build a wider range of capabilities than in the past.

To win with an ecosystem approach, IM companies should focus on two priorities:

Rethink how you create value. Rather than selling discrete products, companies need to develop new ways of creating, delivering, and capturing value across boundaries. The top manufacturers are evolving their offerings to bundle a range of equipment, know-how, and services for their customers. They provide intelligent and connected solutions—including extended services, software, data, and flexible equipment—all integrated across economic domains.

Design for interoperability. Rather than selling proprietary solutions, think in terms of proprietary partnerships—collections of OEMs, EPCs, and end users—that all have access to shared platforms that talk to each other. That entails collaborating up and down the value chain, from suppliers to end users, to establish data standards, governance, and integrated solutions that feature add-on services.