Abstract: Modern universities have evolved into the core driving force of national development and a key factor in regional competitive advantages. A university cluster is a collective of multiple universities and their affiliated academic institutions within a specific spatial scope, fulfilling social service functions such as talent cultivation and innovation-driven development. Through the integration of educational chains, talent chains, innovation chains, and industrial chains, it promotes the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent. The “integration of four chains” serves as the intrinsic mechanism through which university clusters empower regional industrial development. The educational chain fosters the formation and quality enhancement of the talent chain, influencing the developmental level of the innovation chain. The talent chain drives industrial chain development via knowledge spillover and factor complementarity, thereby stimulating innovation and industrial upgrading. The innovation chain impacts industrial chain transformation through the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements. Under the backdrop of implementing the education powerhouse strategy, university clusters should adhere to the external relational principles of higher education, focusing on disciplines planning, talent cultivation, and the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements. By constructing scientific and technological scenarios to strengthen innovation-driven capabilities, and through mechanisms of supply-demand alignment, innovation-driven development, and agglomeration spillover effects, they can empower regional industrial development, providing robust momentum for the transformation and upgrading of regional cities.