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[Objective] As a new type of economic form characterized by innovation, progress, and extension, digital economy is an important driving force to promote the high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin and create new advantages in regional competition. Exploring the evolution of the spatial pattern of digital economy enterprises in the Yellow River Basin and the influencing factors is of great significance for realizing the effect of digital economy reshaping the economic geographical pattern. [Methods] Based on the data of more than 130000 digital economy enterprises in the Yellow River Basin from 2002 to 2019, we used standard deviation ellipse, kernel density estimation, and the multi-scale geographically weighted regression model to explore the evolution of the spatial pattern of digital enterprises in the region. [Results] (1) The number of digital economy enterprises in the Yellow River Basin had increased significantly, showing the characteristics of downstream cities > midstream cities > upstream cities, with the overall spatial pattern of strong in the east and weak in the west and a trend of contraction, and the urban agglomerations showed significant differences in the development process. (2) The distribution of the digital industry manufacturing enterprises showed a trend of a single cluster of downstream cities and the orderly expansion of middle and upstream cities, while the digital technology application enterprises showed a trend of close connection between middle and downstream cities and multi-core clusters. (3) The location selection of digital industry manufacturing enterprises gives more consideration to location factors and has the characteristics of path dependence, while the location selection of digital technology application enterprises gives consideration to location and technology factors and has the characteristics of both path dependence and path creation. [Conclusion] Developing digital economy according to local conditions is an important means to achieve high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and we recommend to promote the digital economy industry to release its potential by improving its foundation, achieving precise layout, promoting innovation and optimizing the structure, and promoting innovation.