The first year sets the tone for the next five; the start determines the outcome.

Domestic GPU companies are experiencing a wave of IPOs.

This period has become a landmark event in the investment community.

Nanjing has been breaking records one after another, drawing significant attention from local governments across the country.

From Muxi Technology and Moore Threads to Cambricon, the region is fully committed to supporting technological innovation.

Amid the buzz, a "slow but steady" strategy is being played out here.

The Nanjing government’s patient investment is not about waiting for the next trend, but rather a systematic strategy.

01 Securing the STAR Market’s “New King of IPOs”

Looking back at the turn of the year, domestic GPUs set the capital markets ablaze.

In just half a month, Moore Threads and Muxi Co. successively listed on the STAR Market.

For Nanjing, the investment has paid off; describing it as a “seamless transition” is no exaggeration.

Even earlier, another chip company, Cambricon, received assistance and support during a critical stage of its growth.

These companies share a distinct commonality: after securing investment in their early stages, they established R&D centers in Nanjing.

Some say that following Hefei, the ranks of “top venture capital cities” have gained another member.

Three major chip giants have consecutively staged “skyrocketing stock prices upon listing,” all of which are deeply tied to Nanjing’s capital.

What kind of “patient strategy” lies behind such formidable investment prowess?

Muxi was founded in September 2020 when several engineers who had worked at AMD for many years decided to start their own business, focusing on the R&D of domestic commercial GPU chips.

At that time, the domestic GPU sector was still largely uncharted territory, with the global GPU market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD.

Nanjing, having only two years prior explicitly set the goal of building a “City of Chips,” was still in the early stages of developing its integrated circuit industry.

To attract potential flagship projects, Nanjing offered a flexible solution: first, using a “cooperative fund” as a bridge to provide angel-round financing to MuXi—which had been established for only 40 days—thereby facilitating the industry’s establishment.

Subsequently, in November 2020, the “Several Policies of Pukou District, Nanjing City for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry” were introduced.

It specifically stipulated that “follow-on investments of up to 30 million yuan will be provided to enterprises that have secured equity financing.”

Additionally, in June 2021, the Pukou District Government of Nanjing, through its state-owned capital platform, directly provided Muxi Co., Ltd. with the maximum allowable “follow-on investment” of 30 million yuan.

Over the past five years, municipal and district-level funds have cumulatively invested approximately 800 million yuan. Among these, three were Nanjing state-owned investment platforms.

Based on their equity stakes, Nanjing’s state-owned capital has realized an unrealized gain of nearly 4 billion yuan, making it a successful case study in local industrial investment.

Nanjing’s patience has ultimately paid off.

Today, this early investment has not only generated substantial paper gains for Nanjing but has also successfully secured MuXi’s core R&D center in Nanjing.

More importantly, it shoulders the responsibility of R&D for Muxi’s entire product line and is the subsidiary with the highest revenue under the Muxi umbrella.

02 Key Elements of Nanjing’s Flagship Initiative

The investment in Muxi exemplifies the Nanjing government and multiple state-owned enterprises’ commitment to the philosophy of “investing early, investing in small-scale ventures, and investing in hard technology.”

First and foremost, the most critical factor is investing in people.

The MuXi founding team—whether founders or partners—consists of veterans in the chip industry.

Moreover, they all previously held key positions at AMD, possess a deep understanding of GPU technology, and have ample industry resources.

What is even more remarkable is that the core members form a solid “technical iron triangle,” and the team’s strong commitment to scientific and technological innovation has led investors to describe them as the “NBA championship team” of China’s GPU R&D.

From this perspective, a number of AI chip companies share a similarity with Moore Threads and MuXi: the foundation of their core capabilities relies heavily on the background of their founding teams.

Based on publicly available information, the founders of most domestic AI chip companies possess more than just “industry experience”; they have led the entire process—from design to mass production—of world-class chip products.

Second, investment funds operate in a market-oriented manner.

Since 2016, funds have been fully funded to establish emerging industry development funds and science and technology innovation funds, with the core model being “sub-funds plus direct co-investment.”

By partnering with professional investment institutions to establish sub-funds, these institutions’ industry expertise is leveraged to screen projects and manage investments.

The benefit of this market-oriented approach is that both the government and professional institutions leverage their respective strengths.

The Nanjing Innovation Investment Group is responsible for strategic direction and resource coordination, while professional institutions handle specific project screening and post-investment management.

This division of labor ensures both the professionalism of investments and leverages the government’s foresight in industrial planning.

We believe this is a key factor in Nanjing’s ability to identify, invest in, and support promising ventures early on.

In addition, by leveraging top universities such as Nanjing University and Southeast University, Nanjing promotes deep integration between industry, academia, and research to cultivate local innovation capabilities.

Compared to other cities, Nanjing’s unique advantage lies in its abundant scientific research resources.

The city is home to more than 50 universities, over 60 research institutes, and more than 100 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering; it ranked 5th globally and 3rd nationally in the 2025 Nature Index (Research Cities).

Leveraging the resource advantages of universities and research institutes, Nanjing has established a balanced presence across multiple sectors, including integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, software and information technology, and biopharmaceuticals.

For example, in the integrated circuit sector, Nanjing not only hosts design firms like Muxi and Moore Threads but also manufacturing and packaging/testing enterprises such as TSMC’s Nanjing plant and Huada Technology, forming a complete industrial chain.

While this approach may appear to spread resources thinly, it offers strong risk resilience and fully leverages Nanjing’s comprehensive advantages in science and technology innovation.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that university research commercialization projects or companies seeking strong research capabilities are choosing to establish themselves in Nanjing.

In fact, many companies that have garnered significant capital attention have taken off from Nanjing. Examples include SHEIN, Yingshi Innovation, and Novazene...

The emergence of these companies is the result of the combined effects of Nanjing’s robust scientific and educational resources, solid industrial foundation, and continuous “patient investment” in the science and technology innovation ecosystem.

True innovation is like the growth of a tree: it requires suitable soil, ample patience, and a commitment to the long term.

While many cities are still planning to “produce a unicorn this year,” Nanjing is already mapping out its technological strategy for five or ten years down the road.

Investments can be made early, and returns can be substantial, but this requires patience—the patience to identify technologies that are “still unfamiliar” and the patience to accompany startups as they grow.

This “patient capital” is not about casting a wide net blindly or waiting for the next trend to emerge; rather, it is a systematic strategic choice.

03 Patient Investment Yields Market Returns

Behind Nanjing’s investment success lies not only paper gains but also the deep roots of companies’ core businesses.

From “individual investments” to “building ecosystems,” from “breakthroughs at specific points” to “systemic empowerment,” capital, technology, and enterprises converge in Nanjing to form an ever-expanding innovation community.

Ultimately, Nanjing’s “patient capital” means being willing to invest time in accompanying enterprises as they grow.

Rather than rushing for returns, the focus is on solidly laying the groundwork for the industry. In today’s increasingly fierce global tech competition, this “slow approach” is particularly valuable.

Since last year, the spotlight on China’s hard tech stage has been intensely bright.

From Yushu Robotics’ stunning debut on the Spring Festival Gala, to DeepSeek shaking up the global AI landscape with its open-source approach.

And then, the excitement sparked by Moore Threads and Muxi’s listings on the STAR Market at year’s end—the market’s buzz is clearly audible.

Clearly, the industry is experiencing a landmark wave of IPOs.

This is undoubtedly driven by favorable policy tailwinds; through a series of reforms, including the STAR Market’s “1+6” policy framework, the capital market has significantly boosted investment confidence in “hard tech” enterprises.

In particular, the increased inclusivity and service efficiency for companies with high R&D investment and long development cycles have opened up financing channels for firms tackling technological challenges in critical sectors.

By 2025, “patient capital” has evolved from an industry call to action into a clear institutional framework.

From the start of the year, when the "State Council Document No. 1" explicitly required government investment funds to "develop patient capital," to the formal inclusion of "strengthening patient capital" in the Government Work Report, and the subsequent rollout of supporting policies across various regions, a central framework for supporting technological innovation with long-term capital has been established.

An even more significant signal emerged at the end of last year. On December 26, the long-awaited National Venture Capital Guidance Fund was officially launched.

Its groundbreaking design—with a lifespan of over 20 years—breaks free from the 7- to 10-year cycle constraints of commercial capital; it also explicitly requires that more than 70% of funds be invested in seed-stage and early-stage hard-tech enterprises, focusing on core sectors such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and aerospace.

This means that foundational software, original materials, and frontier explorations—which require “a decade to hone a sword”—have finally secured a capital “safety cushion” aligned with the nation’s strategic cycle.

Its existence is profoundly transforming the ecosystem and development paradigm for early-stage hard tech projects, accelerating the transition of “long-termism” from a mere slogan into an actionable and predictable financial instrument.

The role of local government-guided funds has evolved into that of “co-investors in industrial clusters.”

In cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hefei, and Wuxi, capital allocation is deeply integrated with local industrial development plans for sectors like semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and biopharmaceuticals.

We observe that the objectives are twofold.

While financial returns are sought, the primary goal is to use capital ties to firmly anchor a company’s “headquarters, core R&D, and mass production lines” in the local area, thereby cultivating and controlling a high-value, complete industrial chain.

For enterprises, choosing where to accept capital often implies choosing the location’s land, talent, policies, and even clusters of partners and customers.

While a company’s technological capabilities and commercial viability are necessary conditions, whether it can precisely fit into the national strategic puzzle, resonate with the ecosystem of industry leaders, and become a key node in a local competitive cluster has become a decisive sufficient condition.

The “patience” of diverse capital sources, the “downward shift” of corporate value, and the “focus” of government resources collectively signal a strategy of using resilience to counter single-point risks. While others are busy picking the low-hanging fruit, local governments are more willing to patiently plant trees, water them, and wait for science and technology innovation enterprises to grow.