As the main force of innovation, the scarcity of original achievements in firms has become a bottleneck that restricts the development of China"s innovation-driven growth. The traditional static perspective overlooks the dynamic characteristics of government subsidies investment, leading to significant biases in evaluating government subsidies standardization’s impact on firms’ ambidextrous innovation (exploitative and exploratory). Based on a dynamic perspective of the rhythm of government subsidies, this article uses panel data from 1,874 listed companies on the A-share market in China from 2011 to 2017 to explore in-depth the causal relationship between government subsidies and ambidextrous innovation in firms, the potential moderating effect of the rhythm of government subsidies, and the important mechanism of R D investment in firms. The results show that government subsidies significantly positively impact ambidextrous innovation in firms, and are more conducive to promoting disruptive exploratory innovation. An increase in R D investment in firms is an important path for government subsidies to promote ambidextrous innovation in firms, and is negatively moderated by the rhythm of government subsidies. This study provides theoretical support and practical evidence for the central and local governments to pay attention to the rhythm of subsidy distribution, promote the reasonable and effective use of government subsidies exclusive account funds by firms, and ultimately accelerate the achievement of innovation-driven development strategic goals.