As an important strategic material in China, the digital upgrading of cotton industry is of great significance to the realization of agricultural modernization and sustainable development of border economy. The research progress of digital cotton technology system was systematically reviewed, and the conceptual framework of “digital cotton” was proposed, covering the whole industrial chain links such as planting management, yield measurement and harvesting, acquisition and processing, fair inspection, warehousing and logistics, and whole-process quality traceability. Focusing on the analysis of the application status and key technological breakthroughs of digital equipment in precision seeding, intelligent water and fertilizer control, unmanned aerial vehicle plant protection, machine cotton picking monitoring and other links through the integration of Internet of Things, remote sensing, big data and artificial intelligence technology, the problems of insufficient equipment adaptability, data islands and cost-benefit imbalance in the current technology application were revealed. It can provide theoretical support for the quality and efficiency improvement and high-quality development of the cotton industry.