<p>Against the backdrop of green and sustainable development, corporate green innovation has become increasingly important for achieving long-term economic and environmental goals. As a strategic production factor, data assets are expected to play a key role in facilitating firms’ green innovation activities. Using a panel dataset of Chinese non-financial listed firms from 2011 to 2024, this study examines the impact of data assets on corporate green innovation. The results show that data assets significantly promote firms’ green innovation performance. This effect remains robust after addressing potential endogeneity and conducting a series of robustness checks. Further mediation analysis indicates that digital transformation and digital technology adoption serve as partial mediating channels, while the sequential indirect effect linking the two mediators is statistically significant but economically small. In addition, heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect is more pronounced among small-sized firms, non-declining firms, and firms with lower market shares. Overall, this study deepens understanding of the micro-level drivers of corporate green innovation, enriches the literature on the role of data assets in corporate green transformation, and provides important theoretical and policy implications for firms seeking to leverage data assets in support of green and sustainable development.</p>