The development of new quality productive forces is regarded as a crucial measure for fully building a great modern socialist country, and the construction of the social credit system is a key link in cultivating enterprises' new quality productive forces. A sample of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2011 to 2023 was selected, and the double machine learning model was adopted to explore the impact and transmission channels of the construction of the social credit system on enterprises' new quality productive forces. Results show that the construction of the social credit system significantly promotes the improvement of enterprises' new quality productive forces. The above promoting effect remains significant after a series of robustness tests, including the replacement of sample periods, the replacement of explained variables and the exclusion of parallel policies. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promoting effect of the social credit system construction on enterprises' new quality productive forces is heterogeneous based on enterprises' own characteristics. The promotion is more prominent in non-state-owned enterprises, high-tech enterprises, enterprises with low capital density, poor governance capacity and weak external supervision. The results of the mechanism analysis indicate that the construction of the social credit system effectively drives the development of enterprises' new quality productive forces by alleviating corporate financing constraints, improving trade credit financing and enhancing the quality of information disclosure. The economic effects of the social credit system construction are further interpreted, and the practical path for the in-depth integration of the social credit system construction and the cultivation of new quality productive forces is revealed, which provides beneficial references for the cultivation of new quality productive forces in China.