PurposeThe purpose is to analyze and discuss the sustainable development (SD) and financing risk assessment (FRA) of resource-based industrial clusters under the Internet of Things (IoT) economy and promote the application of Machine Learning methods and intelligent optimization algorithms in FRA.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm that is analyzed together with the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm. First, Yulin City in Shaanxi Province is selected for case analysis. Then, resource-based industrial clusters are studied, and an SD early-warning model is implemented. Then, the financing Risk Assessment Index System is established from the perspective of construction-operation-transfer. Finally, the risk assessment results of Support Vector Regression (SVR) and ACO-based SVR (ACO-SVR) are analyzed.FindingsThe results show that the overall sustainability of resource-based industrial clusters and IoT industrial clusters is good in the Yulin City of Shaanxi Province, and the early warning model of GA-based SVR (GA-SVR) has been achieved good results. Yulin City shows an excellent SD momentum in the resource-based industrial cluster, but there are still some risks. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the industrial structure of SD and improve the stability of the resource-based industrial cluster for Yulin City.Originality/valueThe results can provide a direction for the research on the early warning and evaluation of the SD-oriented resource-based industrial clusters and the IoT industrial clusters, promoting the application of SVM technology in the engineering field.