High-tech industries and their upgrading along global value chains are the important parts of China’s future industry development. The process of innovation promoting global value chains upgrading of high-tech industries is affected by four factors, namely, the innovation input, the innovation carrier, the innovation culture and the innovation market. If analyzed by the chemical reaction equation, the innovation input is considered as the reactant, the output is the resultant, the innovation carrier is the catalyst, the innovation culture is the equivalent to the reaction conditions, and the innovation market has the selection to the resultant. The final chosen innovation achievement can bring high-tech industries with product upgrading, process upgrading, function upgrading and value chain upgrading. Through the empirical test, it finds that the innovation input, the innovation market and the innovation culture have obvious effects on global value chains upgrading of high-tech industries, but the innovation carrier not.