New quality productivity has formed and demonstrated in practice as a strong driving force and support for high-quality development, and the rapid development of the digital economy has provided technical support and industrial foundation for the leap of productivity, becoming the core driving force for cultivating new quality productivity. Therefore, clarifying the internal mechanism of the role of digital economy in new quality productivity and exploring the logical relationship between the two are of great significance for developing new quality productivity according to local conditions and promoting high-quality economic and social development. The article is based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2021, guided by Marxist productivity theory, and closely focused on the core connotation of new quality productivity. It constructs an evaluation index system to measure the development level of new quality productivity from three dimensions: new quality workers, new quality labor objects, and new quality labor materials, and deeply explores the impact and mechanism of digital economy on the development of new quality productivity. Research has found that: 1) Digital economy has a significant positive promoting effect on new quality productivity, and this conclusion still holds true after endogeneity and robustness tests; 2) The heterogeneity test results indicate that the empowering effect of digital economy on new quality productivity is effective in the eastern, central, and western regions of China, and shows a stronger empowering effect in the western region. However, it is not significant in the northeast region. This may be due to the relatively weak digital infrastructure, population outflow, and slow industrial transformation in the northeast region; 3) The mechanism test results show that digital economy can promote the development of new quality productivity through two paths: accelerating the process of market-oriented reform and promoting the upgrading of industrial structure; 4) The threshold effect reveals that the impact of digital economy on the development of new quality productivity is not linear, but rather has a significant threshold effect, which increases significantly with the improvement of the level of digital economy development. Based on this, the article proposes to vigorously develop digital economy, providing solid technical support and innovative momentum for cultivating new quality productivity; To accelerate the process of market-oriented reform and provide a favorable business environment and institutional guarantee for the cultivation of new quality productive forces; To accelerate the optimization and adjustment of industrial structure, and provide a solid industrial foundation and platform efficiency for the cultivation of new quality productivity. From the theoretical perspective, the article establishes an interactive analysis framework for the organic correlation between the digital economy and new quality productivity, responding to the research shortcomings raised by many scholars regarding the insufficient empirical analysis of the two; From the practical perspective, the policy recommendations proposed in the article can fully leverage the unique effectiveness of digital economy and provide reference for accelerating the formation of new quality productivity.