The real focus behind this wave of AI company IPOs is Shanghai state-owned capital.

``` 1. There’s a recent joke circulating in the capital markets: “Shanghai state-owned capital has made a killing.” This joke stems from the fact that within just one month, a cluster of Shanghai AI companies have gone public one after another. In December 2025, Muxi Technology, which focuses on high-performance GPUs, was listed on the STAR Market; not long after, Insilico Medicine, specializing in AI drug R&D, went public in Hong Kong. In January 2026, Biren Technology, also dedicated to GPUs, rang the gong at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Soon after, TianShu AI, a domestic general GPU manufacturer breaking through mass production, and MiniMax (Xiyu Technology), an AI large model company, also went public in Hong Kong one after another. When people sorted through information on these AI companies, they discovered that behind each one, Shanghai state-owned capital was involved. Shanghai State Development Investment, Shanghai International, Shanghai Guosheng, Lingang Group, Pudong Venture Capital... The market suddenly realized that Shanghai state-owned assets had laid out such deep and widespread deployments in this sector. In November 2023, Guofang Innovation under Shanghai International made a strategic investment in MiniMax, and completed the deal in 2024, becoming the first RMB fund investor from Shanghai’s state system to invest in Xiyu Technology. Guotou Xiandao and Futeng Capital, under Shanghai State Development Investment, also deeply participated in MiniMax’s early and mid-stage financing, and led the Pre-B+ and Pre-B++ rounds. Biren Technology was the first direct investment project of the Shanghai State Development Investment AI Industry Mother Fund. In March 2025, Shanghai State Development Investment AI Industry Mother Fund jointly led a funding round for Biren, with several well-known investment institutions and industry capital following suit, totaling several hundred million yuan. In addition, from Biren’s founding to its IPO, Lingang Group also had multiple affiliated funds lead and follow investments, becoming one of its key shareholders. The STAR Sci-Tech Series Mother Fund managed by International Sci-Tech under Shanghai International continuously supported Muxi Technology via sub-funds, investing in its Angel, Pre-A, B, and Pre-IPO rounds since 2020. Meanwhile, the STAR Phase I Mother Fund directly invested 50 million yuan in Muxi’s Series A round in 2021; the STAR Phase II Mother Fund, together with Shanghai International’s subsidiary International Investment, directly invested 130 million yuan in Muxi’s Series B round in 2024. Behind these glowing listed companies, there’s another batch of unicorns raring to go—Enflame Technology in the cloud AI chip field has completed its IPO counseling and is sprinting towards a listing. Xizhi Technology, a provider of hybrid optical-electric computing power, Zhiyuan Robotics with its dual drive in embodied intelligence, and Stepstar, which is constantly iterating in multi-modal foundational models, are all planning their IPO roadmaps. Shanghai state-owned capital has already moved on these companies as well. The list of investments is endless; if you look closely, it seems every company has help from Shanghai state-owned capital. From a financial perspective, the listing of these companies will indeed bring considerable returns to Shanghai state-owned capital. But, why Shanghai state-owned capital? 2. Some say that in recent years, Shanghai state-owned capital has truly made efforts and committed to supporting innovation and technology. In 2024, when Shanghai launched three leading industry mother funds and a future industry fund totaling 100 billion yuan, the entire venture capital market was stirred. After the shock, Shanghai’s speed was even more astonishing. The three leading industry mother funds completed the full cycle from selection to investment in their inaugural year (2024). Famous market funds rushed to participate. In 2025, Shanghai State Investment’s fund contribution even approached 40 billion yuan. With a three-dimensional approach, Shanghai state-owned capital is increasingly at ease on the technology track. Through mother funds deploying into sub-funds, Shanghai state-owned capital has reached out even further. Look at the numbers for the Guotou Xiandao AI Mother Fund: its sub-fund matrix consists of 22 funds, with a total scale of 34.6 billion yuan; Guotou Xiandao’s investment decision amount has reached 7 billion yuan. All the sub-funds have collectively introduced and landed 37 projects, helping a batch of star companies such as Taishi Zhihang, Hillbot, Songying Technology, Qincheng Jizhi, Z Pilot, among others, to settle in Shanghai. Via the reach of sub-funds, Shanghai state-owned capital can access more projects, and then decisively make direct investments, participating more directly in the technological revolution. For example, when Guotou Xiandao encountered Zhiyuan Robotics, the investment team found that in terms of technology, product, and supply chain management, the company fit the profile they were seeking. The direct investment was quickly sealed. As Chairman Yuan Guohua of Shanghai State Investment put it: “State capital should invest early and with small sums, but also invest in hard and heavy tech. Currently, Guotou has nearly 200 frontline investors racing across the industry. With the help of sub-funds, we have hundreds of eyes all searching for projects. Once we spot a good company and confirm its worth, we can decisively invest.” More importantly, the repeated investments by Shanghai state-owned capital aren’t just icing on the cake, but vital support at critical moments. In 2023, the “hundred model war” triggered by ChatGPT was in full swing. The industry entered a phase of fierce competition, facing overall tightening of financing and unclear profit models. At that time, it was hard to tell which company would break out from the pack. Focusing on MiniMax, Guofang Innovation conducted several rounds of deep due diligence. What finally convinced them was just an ordinary detail. Investment Deputy Director Zhang Chen recalled that during the last due diligence, the team saw the R&D team optimising model parameters late into the night without fatigue. This solidified their conviction: instead of fretting over short-term controversies and fluctuations in the field, they would focus on long-term value in hard tech breakthroughs, and use real investment to retain high-quality AI innovation seeds in Shanghai. Since 2024, due to adjustments in the secondary market, fundraising for innovative drugs has been under sustained pressure. During this, Pudong Venture Capital Group, as a joint lead investor, injected $30 million into Insilico Medicine and signed multiple strategic cooperation agreements on investment & financing, industry upgrading, and park cooperation, attracting Hong Kong capital to follow suit, ultimately completing $123 million in Series E funding. “As far as this investment goes, its value goes far beyond the capital itself. What Shanghai gave us was certainty.” said Ren Feng, co-CEO of Insilico Medicine. “It sends the signal that even in a down market, there’s still capital that believes AI can change drug R&D.” This is the difference between Shanghai state-owned capital funds and others—the emphasis on “strategy”. “If a project is strategic to Shanghai or to the nation, it’s worth a try even if it’s a bit riskier,” said He Miao, deputy general manager of Guotou Xiandao Fund. “When many enterprises face uncertainty and difficulty in financing, Shanghai state-owned capital dares to play the lead investor role in companies’ development, attracting more social capital to jointly support these hard-tech companies.” It can be said that under this philosophy, Shanghai state-owned capital has gradually built in Shanghai a complete AI ecosystem covering foundational chips, intermediate model tool layers, and upper-layer industry applications. With such a dense technological investment network, the layout of more high-quality companies by Shanghai state-owned capital seems only natural. 3. The market thinks Shanghai state-owned capital has made a killing, but the invested companies feel they have, too. Several company founders all expressed one opinion: compared to the amount of capital, the endorsement of Shanghai state-owned capital is even more precious, stabilizing investor confidence. Fund managers at Guotou Xiandao candidly admit that during post-investment management they are often consulted for opinions by other interested funds. At the same time, the support of Shanghai state-owned capital never stops at funding; as an empowerer of industry, it pushes forward in technological breakthrough, industry connections, and ecosystem collaboration, building a complete ecological network for AI enterprises. For example, after investing in MiniMax, Guofang Innovation led the company team to connect, one by one, with all levels of Shanghai state capital entities, guiding the company to enhance localized communication, and helping MiniMax secure additional support from other Shanghai state-owned players. After investing in Zhiyuan Robotics, Shanghai State Development Investment jointly designed with the company to lay out the embodied intelligence industry chain upstream and downstream in the Yangtze River Delta. At the same time, around the need for industry orders and scenario applications, it helped Zhiyuan explore business opportunities in Agricultural Bank branches, Bright Group’s elderly care, and Shanghai Museum tourism scenarios. During the construction of Lingang New Area Intelligent Computing Center, Biren Technology’s chips are used as core infrastructure, forming industrial collaboration with other park companies to build an AI hard tech ecosystem cluster. Not only thinking about business ecosystem for companies, Shanghai state-owned capital is also filling gaps in the investment ecosystem. At the earlier end of the investment chain, China’s first public welfare foundation for basic research initiated by the state-owned system—Qiyuan Public Welfare Foundation—was established in Shanghai. Guided by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of Shanghai, 16 city-owned enterprises jointly donated to set it up, aiming to fund basic and applied research in integrated circuits, biomedicine, AI, and future industries. The first batch of 24 Qiyuan Youth Scholar Project and 8 Qiyuan State Capital Pioneer Project leaders have already received up to 1 million yuan each; the youngest is only 28 years old. In the angel investment ecosystem, Shanghai state-owned capital is also acting frequently. As the initiator and strategic partner of Shanghai Angel Club, Shanghai State Development Investment has helped build an early-stage technology incubation ecosystem. Its sub-fund managers have deeply participated in cultivating early investors through the Sci-Tech Angel program and hosting special events such as Futeng Capital’s Sci-Tech Bootcamp. At the back end of the investment chain, Shanghai International led the establishment of the first VC-type S Fund in the Shanghai state-owned system—Ke Chuang Relay Phase I Fund, with a fundraising scale of 1.5 billion yuan, exploring a relay capital mechanism for the science and tech industry, with future efforts to reach a scale of tens of billions. This initiative will release tens of billions of capital liquidity into the market, effectively easing private equity’s “exit difficulties”, and, through a virtuous cycle of “investment—exit—reinvestment”, attract more social capital to participate in tech innovation investment. To dispel worries about investing early, in small amounts, or in hard tech, the Shanghai SASAC and the Municipal Finance Office jointly issued the “Trial Measures for Assessment and Due Diligence Exemption of Private Equity Funds Managed by SASAC-Managed Enterprises”, specifying five cases for exemption, and linking managers’ annual evaluations to the fund’s full life cycle. This series of ecosystem and investment ecosystem maneuvers makes one admire Shanghai state-owned capital’s sophistication. Many only see the short-term financial returns, but this city’s vision has never been about just the present. So, rather than saying “Shanghai state-owned capital has made a killing”, it’s more accurate to say that Shanghai has seized the initiative, and Chinese technology has won a future with more imagination. Source: Shangguan News Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market has risks, and investment needs caution. This article does not constitute individual investment advice and does not take into account the particular investment objectives, financial situations, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific situations. Investing accordingly is at your own risk. ```