The narrative in the primary market is shifting. The "large model duo" Z.AI and MiniMax have successfully listed in Hong Kong, the "first humanoid robot stock" Unitree Robotics and DRAM storage chip leader ChangXin Memory Technologies have landed on the STAR Market, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek have repeatedly set new financing records, and investment enthusiasm for frontier technology projects such as embodied intelligence, commercial aerospace, and quantum computing continues to rise.
At the same time, these companies are systematically building new industrial ecosystems through equity investments. Based on an incomplete summary of public information, corporate industrial investments currently mainly follow four paths: direct investment, establishing incubators, setting up equity investment funds as general partners (GPs), and participating in funds as limited partners (LPs). Compared with the previous generation of internet giants, the industrial investments of tech startups show three obvious characteristics.
First, cross-sector investment is faster. Tencent was founded in 1998, its first publicly verifiable direct investment occurred in 2007, and its first registered and filed equity investment institution was not formally established until October 2018; Baidu Ventures first appeared in 2016, nearly 16 years after Baidu was founded, and Meituan Dragonball also did not set up its first fund until 7 years after Meituan was founded. By contrast, AgiBot began contributing as a strategic investor only one year after its founding, and Z.AI's first equity investment fund completed its first closing in 2024, less than 5 years after the company was established.
Second, investment preferences are more vertical. In addition to seeking business synergy and swallowing competitors, internet giants' equity investments also placed particular emphasis on boundary expansion. Behind the vigorous "cash-burning wars" in shared bikes, fresh food front warehouses, and community group buying were internet giants. Tech startups, however, mainly build along the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. Galbot has successively invested in humanoid robot companies such as LanYue Dynamics and OneStar Robot, and also established a joint venture "Boyin Hechuang" with Boyuan Capital under Bosch Group, focusing on dexterous robot development for industrial assembly and quality inspection scenarios; AMEC's subsidiary Zhiwei Capital is carrying out "chain supplementation and strengthening" around the semiconductor industry chain, and Xinyuan Capital, the investment institution of Xinlian Integrated Circuit, clearly focuses on the upstream of the semiconductor industry chain and downstream emerging applications.
Third, they enter the LP role earlier. Internet giants generally started relatively late as LPs giving back to the venture capital ecosystem, mostly after their main businesses matured and cash flow became relatively abundant, which is essentially a spillover of a mature ecosystem. Tech startups, however, start cooperation with leading institutions earlier and in more diverse forms. Unitree Robotics recently announced the joint establishment of the "Shanyu Innovation Program" with Sequoia China, focusing on discovering and investing in embodied intelligence, robot applications, and key technologies upstream and downstream, committed to becoming founders' "entrepreneurial partner"; Galaxea jointly released the industrial investment ecosystem plan "Star Journey Plan" with Cathay Capital, expected to invest 1 billion yuan over 5 years, aiming to invest in 100 early-stage embodied intelligence projects covering components, data, algorithms, and scenario applications.
This series will use three companies—Z.AI, AgiBot, and Horizon Robotics—as samples, and examine four types of paths from angles such as industrial investment activity and industry and geographic preferences.
Share price has retraced more than 85%, investment has slowed, and early-stage projects account for about 40%. Z.AI originated from the Knowledge Engineering Group (KEG) laboratory of Tsinghua University's Department of Computer Science and Technology. It is an artificial intelligence large model company incubated by the team of Professor Tang Jie from Tsinghua University's Department of Computer Science and Technology and began independent operations in June 2019. Public information from Tianyancha shows that in April 2020, Z.AI completed its first direct equity investment, targeting Biendata, an artificial intelligence and big data competition platform. After the transaction was completed, Z.AI held about 20% of Biendata's equity, second only to the founding team and the largest external investor.
The peak of Z.AI's direct external investment activity was 2023-2024. The prospectus shows that during this period the company obtained 4 rounds of financing, with cumulative financing amounting to as much as 3.607 billion yuan, and post-investment valuation soared from 3.210 billion yuan to 13.359 billion yuan. With ample "ammunition" of funds, Z.AI made moves 9 times for two consecutive years, investing in AI infrastructure providers "Jiliu Technology," "SiliconFlow," and "Infinigence," as well as end-side foundation model "ModelBest" and other "unicorn" companies. In 2025, Z.AI began preparing for listing, the number of direct investments fell sharply, and about 80% were newly established companies as joint ventures with listed companies or state-owned enterprises, including "Zhixian Robotics" jointly funded with Zhouming Technology, "Zhiqi Wenhua Education" jointly funded with Kaiwen Education, and "Shangwei Mofang Technology" jointly funded with Zhuhai Huafa Digital Intelligence. In January 2026, Z.AI successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "world's first large model stock," with market value once exceeding one trillion. However, after listing, the company's share price continued to fluctuate, hovering around 427 Hong Kong dollars per share as of the time of publication, more than 85% below its highest point.
As of the end of October, Z.AI's direct investments were generally cautious, with only 4 projects concentrated in the middle of the year, and no publicly disclosed activity after July. From 2020 to the first 10 months of 2026, Z.AI participated in 30 investments in 27 companies, all concentrated in the artificial intelligence industry, of which upstream computing centers, AI chips, data services, and other AI infrastructure companies accounted for about 46.7%, and downstream general AI applications accounted for about 30.0%. Among the invested projects, about 40.0% of companies were in seed, angel, and Pre-A early stages, while another 30.0% were established with Z.AI funding. This means Z.AI's direct investments tend to support invested companies in crossing the "valley of death," helping them transition from idea to product and from product to market.
In addition, more than 70% of the company's invested projects are located in Beijing. On one hand, this is because Z.AI's headquarters is in Beijing, giving it a geographical advantage; on the other hand, Beijing has top domestic research institutes and universities and is a talent highland for hard technology such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Deep ties with Xinglian Capital, giving back to Jiangmen Ventures' new fund. At the end of 2023, Z.AI launched the large model industry incubator Z Program. The program targets startups worldwide established within five years in large models and related application scenarios, providing Token sponsorship (that is, they can apply for Z.AI large model service vouchers to offset usage fees), investment support, and technical services (including computing power, office space, joint marketing, etc.). Startups with financing needs, reasonable valuations, and strong ecological synergy with Z.AI have the opportunity to receive investment from the Z Fund.
Z.AI's Z Fund, namely Beijing Xinglian Dingsen Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership), has total subscribed capital contributions of 1.278 billion yuan. In addition to Z.AI, the fund's LPs also include Zhongguancun Science City, Beijing Science and Technology Innovation Fund, Shijingshan District Modern Innovation Industry Development Fund, Fuzhuo Investment, and other institutions with state-owned backgrounds, as well as the Tsinghua University Education Foundation, Ant Group, and Aofei Data. According to the 2025 annual report disclosure, Z.AI held 21.41% equity in the fund by the end of the year, with a book value of about 279 million yuan.
It is worth noting that Xinglian Capital, the manager of the Z Fund, is not only one of Z.AI's earliest investors; its founding partner Li Wenyu previously worked at CAS Star, an angel-round investor in Z.AI, and at the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, which participated in incubating Z.AI. In 2021, Lingxin Intelligence, an AGI company she co-founded, received two consecutive follow-on investments from Z.AI and was eventually acquired in September 2023 at a valuation of several hundred million yuan. Information from the Asset Management Association of China shows that Li Wenyu has served as vice president of Z.AI since April 2022, responsible for the coordinated investment of Z.AI's Z Fund and Z Program. Based on an incomplete count of public information from Tianyancha, the 10 funds currently filed by Xinglian Capital have raised a total of 2.978 billion yuan, with the Z Fund accounting for about 42.9% of the scale.
After entering 2026, Z.AI has also become more active as an LP in funds. In May, the company jointly initiated the establishment of an artificial intelligence industry venture capital fund with Guotai Junan Venture Capital, with shareholding ratios of 14.8148% and 17.5926% respectively. The total fund contribution was about 540 million yuan, and local government guidance funds such as Hubei Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, Shandong Provincial New Kinetic Energy Fund, Haizhu Chengfa, and Guang'an Guli were among the LPs. In September, Zhejiang Z.AI Jiangmen Cognitive Intelligence Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership) was established, with Z.AI holding about 29%, and Hangzhou state-owned Shangcheng Capital and Hangzhou Chengtou each holding 30%. The fund is managed by Jiangmen Ventures, with a total scale of up to 1 billion yuan, focusing on tracks such as large models, computing infrastructure, core algorithms, intelligent software and hardware, and industry applications.
Public information shows that both institutions have close ties with Z.AI. Guotai Junan Venture Capital is the private equity subsidiary of Guotai Haitong Securities, and Guotai Haitong Securities was one of the coaching institutions for Z.AI's A-share IPO. Jiangmen Ventures had participated in Z.AI's Series A financing in 2021 with 10 million yuan, and the prospectus shows that before listing the institution held about 0.37% of the company's shares.