Patient Capital Anchors Hard Technology, Insurance Funds Seize the Frontiers of Scientific Innovation "Entry Ticket"

Reporter: Xue Jin

The “14th Five-Year Plan” outline proposes accelerating high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement, leading the development of new quality productivity. As a representative of medium- and long-term funds, insurance capital actively plays the role of serving the real economy, acting as a precise drip irrigator for national strategies, resonating with the transformation of old and new kinetic energy, and providing long-term, stable funding support for cutting-edge technological innovation and key areas of new productivity.

Many insurance institutions have stated that they have already deployed in key fields such as advanced manufacturing, high-end equipment, semiconductors, biomedicine, new-generation information technology, new energy and new materials, and artificial intelligence; they have built diversified models including stocks, bonds, funds, and alternative investments to meet the financing needs of science and technology innovation entities throughout their entire lifecycle. They do not pursue short-term arbitrage but instead accompany tech startups from the “laboratory” to the user end, from the “seed stage” to towering trees.

Accelerating Investment in Hard Technology

In recent months, the capital market has seen several highly watched “star stocks,” such as GPU chip company Moore Thread, Mu Xi Co., and general artificial intelligence tech company MiniMax, all backed by insurance capital. For example, MiniMax, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Main Board in January this year, has shareholders including China Life’s professional alternative investment platform Guoshou Investment.

“Guoshou Investment’s subsidiary, Guoshou Capital, is the first state-owned investor in MiniMax. It has participated in two rounds of financing through the Guoshou Sci-Tech Innovation Fund and the Guoshou Dual-Carbon Fund, respectively, in February 2024 and December 2024. Guoshou Capital’s core strategy is long-term companionship and full-chain empowerment, actively leveraging capital to enable industry synergy and support MiniMax from technological R&D to scale and commercialization,” said a person in charge of Guoshou Investment.

“Recently, Guoshou Dual-Carbon Fund also led the Series C funding of Fao Yiwei (Suzhou) Robot System Co., Ltd. This company is the only domestic collaborative robot manufacturer that has achieved full-stack self-research and self-production of its core products, and was rated as a national “Little Giant” enterprise specializing in niche and innovative technology in 2025. This is an important layout for the fund in the robotics sector, demonstrating the active practice of insurance capital serving the national science and technology innovation strategy, as well as a significant exploration of patient capital accompanying Chinese robot companies onto the global stage,” the person added.

Not only in the primary market, but insurance capital also maintains high activity in the secondary public markets for tech investments. According to recent quarterly reports of listed companies, insurance firms and their fund accounts frequently appear among the top ten shareholders of innovative tech companies. Besides equity investments, insurance capital, as a major subscriber of convertible bonds, is also intensively investing in and subscribing to sci-tech bonds.

A relevant person from New China Life Insurance told China Securities Journal: “By 2025, our investment balance in hard technology fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and biomedicine will reach about 140 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate exceeding 27%. We have participated in the first batch of sci-tech bond ETFs to support the development of the ‘Science and Technology Innovation Board’ in the bond market. In response to the policy call of ‘early investment, small investment, long-term investment, and hard technology,’ we are investing in national venture capital guiding funds like the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Fund and supporting new infrastructure construction, incubating tech unicorns, and promoting the development of new quality productivity.”

Diversified Approaches to Entry

Several insurance industry insiders have stated that the fields in which insurance capital can invest are broad. They can inject patient capital into frontier areas of technological innovation through equity, debt, private equity funds, and public markets, or through combined equity-debt, mezzanine investments, and asset securitization tools.

“Fixed income investments are actively exploring high-quality bonds of leading tech companies, while equity investments strengthen support for tech innovation enterprises and develop related thematic strategies. Alternative investments focus on high-quality projects aligned with the goal of technological independence and self-reliance,” said a person in charge of Guoshou Assets. The company has successfully explored a relay investment model between insurance capital and government funds, supporting the development of the integrated circuit industry in Shanghai and investing in Beijing’s science and technology innovation funds.

A relevant person from New China Assets said that, taking equity investment as an example, insurance capital has formed an organic combination of direct and indirect investments. On one hand, through direct equity investments, it injects valuable capital into high-quality tech companies in growth or maturity stages with leading technology and broad market prospects; on the other hand, as a limited partner (LP), it widely participates in top venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds, leveraging the keen market insight and industry resources of professional investment institutions to precisely “drip” support into small, innovative “hard tech” startups in their seed or early stages.

“We utilize our private equity platform Huatai Baoli to fully leverage the advantage of patient capital, focusing on high-end manufacturing, smart vehicles, advanced packaging, and key materials in 2025,” said a Huatai Asset representative.

A person from China Re Assets stated that in the sci-tech field, the company has built and continuously improved a distinctive “PE + direct investment” model to mobilize more social capital to accompany and support tech companies through their growth cycles. Since 2021, the company has added over 20 sci-tech equity investment projects, covering more than 230 specialized, innovative, and small giant enterprises; by 2025, it plans to increase support for healthcare and tech innovation equity funds through S-share investments, enriching the investment paths and tools for supporting technological innovation.

Better Playing the Role of Patient Capital

Industry insiders told China Securities Journal that along the new investment research map, improving the investment research system and enhancing research capabilities are essential for insurance capital to reach the frontlines of successful sci-tech investments more quickly. Further improvement of the related investment ecosystem can also make this process smoother.

“Continuous refinement of investment research capabilities in cutting-edge hard technology fields and early-stage project screening is necessary,” said a person in charge of New China Assets. They believe that insurance capital needs to deepen research into strategic emerging industries and future industries, establish cross-industry, penetrating industry chain research systems, and not only understand financial statements but also grasp technological routes and industry patterns, truly forming a leading market cognition advantage and building a dual-driven capability of “industry research + technological insight.”

A relevant person from Huatai Assets said that supporting technological innovation with insurance capital is not just about capital supply but about building an investment ecosystem suited to the characteristics of tech innovation. For example, insurance capital could try to change the traditional “risk-reward” matching framework and establish a more objective and effective future value assessment model; improve the ability to discover innovative technologies and key core technologies, and enhance the evaluation of enterprise sustainability and growth potential.

Regarding investment ecosystem issues, Tian Xuan, a distinguished professor at Peking University Boya, stated that currently, insurance capital’s investment in emerging and future industries still faces core problems such as maturity mismatch, risk mismatch, and mechanism mismatch. He suggests improving the valuation system for tech assets, accelerating the pricing and collateral mechanisms for intangible assets like patents and data, implementing long-term assessment and fault-tolerance mechanisms, and applying differentiated supervision and evaluation for state-owned insurance companies’ tech investments. Establishing multi-level risk-sharing mechanisms, streamlining exit channels, deepening reforms in mergers, acquisitions, and equity transfers in capital markets, and providing stable exit expectations for long-term investments are also crucial. Maintaining policy continuity and stability through institutional arrangements can foster long-term investment confidence, encouraging insurance capital to dare, be able, and willing to invest in emerging and future industries.