How Russia is changing the model of high-tech sales abroad

Russian high-tech exports are undergoing a profound structural transformation: markets, supply formats and the very philosophy of international technological cooperation are changing. According to representatives of the Skolkovo Foundation, the Presidential Academy and Plekhanov REU, the key shift is the transition from the export of individual licenses to the supply of integrated engineering solutions and entire technological stacks.

The driver here is the national project “International Cooperation and Export”, which forms the support infrastructure – from finding foreign partners to certification and insurance.

According to the Trade Data Monitor and the World Intellectual Property Organization, global exports of high-tech products in 2025 reached $ 4.9 trillion, an increase of almost 14% by 2024. This is almost three times the growth rate of world trade as a whole – 4.9%. Russia is not yet among the world leaders, but the dynamics of Russian high-tech exports is noticeably ahead of the global pace: in 2025, according to the Gaidar Institute, the market volume grew to $29.6 billion - by 26.6%.

The list of Russian supplies today is quite wide, the press service of the Russian Export Center (REC, VEB.RF Group) tells. It includes software (software), IT services and equipment, information security technologies (IB), machine-building products - from medical equipment to large industrial equipment, as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnological products. “In general, the industries show growth due to the reorientation to new markets in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, although such a reorientation takes longer for high-tech exports than for exchange-traded goods,” said Alexei Mudrakov, Director of Customer Affairs at the REC.

Software and integrated solutions

One of the most dynamic segments is software. Exports of Russian computer services, according to the Bank of Russia, which leads the Russoft Association, in 2025 grew for the first time after three years of decline and added 14.8%, reaching $ 2.1 billion. According to preliminary estimates of the association, the volume of foreign sales of Russian software companies amounted to $ 5.9-6.2 billion, an increase of up to 10%. By the end of 2026, the association predicts an increase of another 15%.

The main change is in the geography and nature of exports. “The most promising are the markets of the CIS, the Middle East, Asia and the global South, where there is a demand not just for a separate software product, but for technological sovereignty and the ability to control critical digital infrastructure,” said Petr Armand, director of the Skolkovo Foundation’s Digital Development Center.

One successful example is Smart Engines from the Moscow region, which creates services based on artificial intelligence (AI) for document recognition. The Smart ID Engine product recognizes 3,000 document types and 5,000 document templates in more than 100 languages, the Sherlock neural network ensemble checks their authenticity by 600 signs. Supplies go to Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the UAE and Turkey; the number of end users exceeds 275 million people. Under the national project “International Cooperation and Export”, the company received certificates “Made in Russia” and plans to present its products in national pavilions abroad.

Against the background of the active development of software exports, progress in cybersecurity is especially noticeable. In the segment of new generation firewalls (NGFW), which analyze network traffic and block cyber threats, Russian developers, according to the Center for Strategic Research (CSR), in 2024 occupied more than 60% of the domestic market. Now they are actively considering export prospects.

Products of Kaspersky Lab, Positive Technologies and InfoWatch are in demand in the UAE and Asia as an alternative to Western solutions, allowing to ensure digital sovereignty, said Marina Kholod, associate professor of Plekhanov REU. At the same time, new generation firewalls, data leak prevention systems (DLP), cryptographic protection tools, solutions for protecting critical infrastructure and industrial digital systems are not sold through the conditional “shelf” of Russian software, the expert says: “There is another mechanics: a pilot project, a local integrator, work with the regulator, confirmation of compliance with local requirements and further scaling.”.

Pyotr Armand highlights another trend - the export of the technological stack: "Overseas, it is often more profitable for our companies to act not as competing suppliers of individual products, but to collect a comprehensive offer. Conventionally, one vendor provides cybersecurity, another – an industrial platform, a third – AI, a fourth – an infrastructure layer, and the Russian integrator acts as the architect of the solution.

This logic of the integrated offer also works in related areas – industrial automation and smart city projects. The export of Russian high technologies is no longer a question of competitive developments: there are such solutions. The question is how quickly we will be able to build effective channels for their entry into foreign markets, says Nikolai Bulatov, director of energy-intensive industries at the Skolkovo Foundation.

This is especially true for industrial software and automation, where not only products but also engineering competencies are exported. As an example, Nikolai Bulatov cites the group of companies “Intelka”, a partner of “Skolkovo”, which has implemented dozens of projects for the introduction of automated process control systems (ACS) in the factories of the fat and fat industry and is studying the possibilities of entering the markets of the EAEU. According to the expert, the potential of the ICS market for this industry in the EAEU is estimated at 3.5 billion rubles. per year, and by 2027 may grow to 6 billion rubles.

The solutions of Yandex, Ctrl2GO and Shvabe are built into foreign projects of the smart city, Marina Kholod notes. In particular, Yango, at the time of the launch of the services, the international division of Yandex, in 2023 introduced in Dubai the navigation service Yango Maps and the Arabic-language voice assistant Yasmina based on Alice technologies. Since 2018, Shvabe Holding (part of Rostec) has been developing the export of smart city solutions through the RSTrade digital platform together with the Russian-Singapore Business Council, and also cooperates with Saudi Arabia in the field of AI and urban infrastructure. Ctrl2GO is introducing its products to enterprises and developing digital partnerships in India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Latin America.

In medical technology, experts single out the example of Eleps from Tatarstan: it created the first in Russia 4K endoscopic imaging system with fluorescent navigation ICG - a technology that allows the surgeon to see the boundaries of the affected tissues in real time. The system was tested at the Vishnevsky National Research Center for Surgery: for a month and a half, 49 operations were performed with its help, after which the equipment was recommended for widespread implementation. Products are supplied to Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. “ELEPS” is a participant of the “Made in Russia” program, and selects specialized international exhibitions and business missions through the platform “State Services of Foreign Economic Activities”, the company said.

Server hardware exports remain niche, but individual players are already preparing to enter foreign markets. Thus, the company "Trumplin Electronics" is developing a line of server processors "Irtysh" on the Chinese architecture LoongArch, independent of American licenses. The flagship "Irtysh C664" has 64 cores, clock speed up to 2 GHz and supports up to 2 TB of RAM. The company positions it as an analogue of four Intel Xeon Silver 4310 processors. According to the press service of Trumplin Electronics, the topology of the crystals was developed in its own Russian design center, the volume of private investment in the project is 1.3 billion rubles.

In June 2026, the company took part in the REC business mission in Johannesburg, where Russian processors aroused interest among representatives of the mining and transport industries of South Africa. A protocol of intent has been signed with Rivoni Matimba and an agreement is being prepared with electronics manufacturer MX Tech. The company sees demand in the CIS countries, South Africa, India, Vietnam and Indonesia, and in the future plans to enter the markets of Nigeria, the UAE, Mongolia and Saudi Arabia, the press service of Trumplin Electronics reported.

Support infrastructure

The development of the described projects is based on the state support infrastructure, the effectiveness of which, according to Nikolai Bulatov, is measured by the ability to shorten the path from a Russian developer to a foreign industrial customer.

Support for exporters of high-tech products covers the entire cycle - from participation in exhibitions and business missions and the search for foreign partners to financial support for transactions, says Alexei Mudrakov, Director for Client Work of the REC. An important element is the Made in Russia program: through certification and advertising campaigns in 12 countries, the REC promotes the technological advantages of domestic companies. The program operator is the Russian Export Center. The goal of the program is to build trust in the Russian high-tech sector and give companies direct access to customers in friendly countries. Today, more than 34 thousand goods and services received the program certificate, and since 2022 the amount of contracts has exceeded 102 billion rubles.

State support in the field of high technologies should help not so much with product advertising as with reducing the cost of entering a new market: certification, pilot projects, export financing, insurance and finding a strong local partner, says Marina Kholod.

The REC group reminds that it includes the Agency for Insurance of Export Credits and Investments - EXIAR. Investment Insurance allows to minimize political risks when investing Russian organizations abroad. It is particularly in demand in projects in Africa and Latin America.

Services for entering international markets are collected on the digital platform “State Services of Foreign Economic Zone” (“My Export”), created by the REC under the national project “International Cooperation and Export”. The catalog includes more than a thousand services, more than 47 thousand companies are registered in the system. For high-tech companies, the Export Professionals service is especially useful - a network of more than 700 accredited partners providing narrow-profile services: from logistics to negotiating support, taking into account the cultural characteristics of the country.

How to stimulate the export of high technologies

The national project has created a support infrastructure, becoming the basis for the development of export competencies of high-tech companies, experts say. At the same time, they identify a number of barriers that require additional solutions.

One of the main problems of exporters of high-tech products is the protection of intellectual property. Marina Kholod considers it expedient to expand state programs for subsidizing international patent applications. Another topical issue is how to turn scientific development into an export contract. The expert distinguishes two formats of technology transfer: contract research and development (R&D), in which business sets requirements, and institutions solve the problem, and the creation of companies on the basis of universities for the commercialization of developments. “The key measure of state support could be co-financing the Death Valley – the stage from the prototype to the experimental design, as well as grants for the adaptation of products to the requirements of foreign regulators,” says Marina Kholod.

Alexey Efremov, a leading researcher at the Presidential Academy, also points to the need to improve legal regulation: reorienting strategic planning from quantitative growth to qualitative development and introducing specialized labeling of export-oriented software. “At the international level, it is advisable to develop multilateral agreements on technological cooperation and form an institution of technological attachés,” he says.

Today, the vector is shifting from simple deliveries to joint projects, localization and technology transfer, experts say. Partners from Asia, Africa and the Middle East are interested in accessing technology and expertise. The plan of structural changes of the economy until 2030 sets the task to increase exports of products with maximum added value. The Ministry of Economic Development is preparing a “partnership standard” – a standard instruction for entering the markets of 29 friendly countries.

The key trend of the next decade is the shift from individual products to technology ecosystems, where companies combine operating systems, cloud services, data protection and AI solutions. Without going outside the country, it is impossible to form a sustainable technological leadership – international expansion becomes a condition for survival.