In recent years, against the backdrop of profound digital technology transformation, accelerated technological iteration, and increased risks in the innovation system, the environment for enterprise technological innovation has become highly volatile. The sustainability of “rigid” innovation faces unprecedented challenges and constraints. Within this context, effectively promoting sustainable technological innovation in enterprises is not only the micro-foundation for firms to gain long-term competitive advantages but also the macro-strategic cornerstone for China to achieve technological self-reliance and strength. The 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Digital Economy, issued by the State Council in 2022, clearly states that coordinating the development of the digital industry and the digitalization of industries, empowering the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and fostering new industries, new business forms, and new models constitute the core pathway for navigating digital technological change. Following this pathway, digital-real integration innovation is a key measure for enterprises to cope with external technological uncertainty and alleviate the rigidity of technological innovation. However, existing literature lacks sufficient research on understanding enterprise technological innovation sustainability from the perspective of digital-real integration innovation, particularly in-depth studies on how digital-real integration innovation affects it. This study uses panel data of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2024 as the sample. First, using the CSMAR database and the China Research Data Service Platform (CNRDS), and based on the understanding that digital-real integration is essentially a two-way dynamic interaction between digital technology and industrial technology, this study measures the level of digital-real integration in enterprises and empirically examines the impact of digital-real integration on the sustainability of enterprise technological innovation. The results show that digital-real integration significantly enhances the sustainability of enterprise technological innovation. Second, this study constructs a three-dimensional dynamic innovation system consisting of innovation resources, innovation methods, and innovation performance, and systematically analyzes the mechanisms through which digital-real integration affects the sustainability of enterprise technological innovation. The results show that digital-real integration innovation enhances technological innovation sustainability by optimizing the allocation of innovation resources, promoting the transformation of innovation methods, and improving innovation performance. Finally, heterogeneity tests indicate that, compared with the corresponding control groups, the positive impact of digital-real integration innovation on technological innovation sustainability is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, enterprises whose executives have an information technology background, and enterprises located in regions with a higher level of digital infrastructure. Compared with existing literature, the marginal contributions of this paper are threefold. First, this study captures the essence of digital-real integration innovation by considering both industrial digitalization and digital industrialization, thereby measuring the level of digital-real integration in enterprises more accurately. Second, this study empirically examines the impact of digital-real integration innovation on the sustainability of enterprise technological innovation, providing new insights for enterprises to continuously promote technological innovation in the context of digital transformation. Third, this study constructs a three-dimensional dynamic innovation system consisting of innovation resources, innovation methods, and innovation performance, and analyzes the mechanisms through which digital-real integration innovation affects the sustainability of enterprise technological innovation. This deepens the theoretical understanding of the driving role of digital-real integration innovation in the continuous technological innovation of enterprises.