Putting forth effort to enhance total factor productivity is deems as the source of power behind China’s high-quality development. Meanwhile, the deep integration of manufacturing and productive services driven by the digital economy has also become a vital strategic approach to respond to the trend of industrial change, boost the upgrade of manufacturing value chain, and achieve high-quality development. Based on Chinese provincial panel data ranging from 2005 to 2020, after clarifying the theoretical mechanism that the digital economy promotes the integration of manufacturing and productive services in two industries and thus increases the total factor productivity in manufacturing, this paper calculates the level of digital economy, the extent of integration between manufacturing and productive services and the total factor productivity in manufacturing, and empirically tests the connections among the three applying a fi xed-effects model. The study shows that the digital economy can directly favor the improvement of total factor productivity in manufacturing, and primarily through technological progress. Compared to the eastern regions, where the digital economy is gaining momentum, the digital economy is better able to promote total factor productivity in manufacturing in the Midwest. Further, an exploration of the mesomeric effect revealed that the development of the digital economy does contribute to two-industry integration, and in this way has a signifi cant promotion on total factor productivity rise in manufacturing. Moreover, the speed of digital economy promoting the integration of two industries in eastern areas is evidently faster than that in the Midwest. At last, it proposes three related policy recommendations that are stepping up manufacturing digitization, stimulating the impetus for the integration of manufacturing and productive services and propelling the coordinated development of digitalization in manufacturing among regions.