Cai Chongxin has just raised 7 billion.

This year, the largest US dollar fundraising in China was born.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Blue Pool Capital has raised $1 billion (approximately 7 billion RMB) for its first private equity fund.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, China, Blue Pool Capital is a family office jointly founded in 2014 by Joe Tsai of Alibaba. It is now evolving into an external capital management platform. In recent years, the venture capital circle has become increasingly familiar with the mysterious and low - key Blue Pool Capital, and their presence can be seen in many investment cases.

Completing the US dollar fundraising now is highly symbolic as a market indicator.

Joe Tsai's family office raises 7 billion RMB

This is Blue Pool Capital's first PE fund.

As early as the second half of 2025, when global capital was re - evaluating Chinese assets, Blue Pool Capital launched the fundraising for this fund, named Riverside Fund, with a target size of $750 million. At that time, insiders revealed that the first - round fundraising would be completed in early 2026.

In March this year, Riverside Fund was over - subscribed, reaching a scale of $1 billion. Previously, Bloomberg reported that the target LPs included family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and pension funds. Riverside will seek to make controlling or minority equity investments in medium - sized enterprises with an enterprise value between $100 million and $1 billion. The three major investment directions are:

High - end retail and lifestyle brands; fintech, digital banking, and payment solutions; and technology fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and software as a service (SaaS). However, in the latest report from The Wall Street Journal, "rapidly growing global consumer goods companies" will be the investment focus.

When it comes to Blue Pool Capital, the impression in the venture capital circle is that it is low - key and secretive.

This is a family office initiated and controlled by Joe Tsai, a co - founder of Alibaba Group. It can be traced back to 2004 when Joe Tsai and Alexander West founded it in Hong Kong, and the main body of Blue Pool Capital was officially established in 2014, holding a Type 9 asset management license from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Joe Tsai is the core investor, and in the early days, it also involved the wealth management of Jack Ma and other Alibaba executives.

The so - called "Blue Pool" symbolizes the investment philosophy of depth, calmness, and long - termism. As of 2022, Blue Pool Capital's asset management scale exceeded $50 billion (approximately 360 billion RMB), making it a top - tier family office in Asia.

(The official website of Blue Pool Capital, only one page)

Currently, the CEO of Blue Pool Capital is Oliver Weisberg, who has a strong background in Wall Street and hedge funds. His early career started at Goldman Sachs, and he joined Blue Pool Capital around 2015, responsible for daily operations and investment decisions.

Now, Blue Pool Capital is transforming into a multi - family office and an external asset management platform to seek new growth paths and larger - scale trading opportunities. It is reported that in recent years, Blue Pool Capital has started to engage in some large - scale transactions, which has led to discussions about raising an independent private equity fund.

To sum up, the current Blue Pool Capital includes (but is not limited to):

Riverside Fund, the first private equity fund with a scale of $1 billion, focusing on high - end retail, fintech, and AI/SaaS; Harborside Fund, with a scale of $500 million, used for investing in hedge funds and private credit funds; at the same time, Weisberg and another team are responsible for the asset operation of the Tsai family.

In the past few years, Blue Pool Capital's investment portfolio has included SpaceX, ByteDance, HuaLing Pharma, TengSheng BoYao, the innovative drug R & D company FogPharma, the Middle - East version of Huabei Tabby, Golden Goose, etc., with a global footprint.

Among them, the investment in the asset management company BlueOwl Capital is the most profitable single - listed asset publicly disclosed by Blue Pool Capital. In the early years, Blue Pool entered through Dyal Capital (the predecessor of Blue Owl) and became its core LP and strategic shareholder. After that, Blue Owl went public through SPAC, and its stock price soared. Blue Pool's book floating profit exceeded 200%. A few years ago, Blue Pool Capital reduced its holdings to realize profits.

Joe Tsai strikes again, several deals shock the venture capital circle

Joe Tsai is well - known in the venture capital circle.

In 1999, he met Jack Ma. At that time, this grassroots startup team was looking for VC investment, and Joe Tsai worked in the Hong Kong office of the venture capital department of Investor AB in Sweden. Although the investment deal didn't work out in the end, it later became a good story: Joe Tsai resolutely quit his venture capital job with an annual salary of $700,000 and went to Hangzhou to join Alibaba, a company with an uncertain future.

After many ups and downs, Joe Tsai has almost dedicated his career to Alibaba. After all the twists and turns, he is still the chairman of the board of Alibaba Group.

Outside of Alibaba, Joe Tsai and Blue Pool Capital have frequently appeared in the venture capital circle in recent years.

During the Spring Festival last year, Golden Goose Group S.p.A, an Italian high - end sports shoes, clothing, and accessories brand (Golden Goose for short), announced that it had received a strategic equity investment of approximately 12% from Blue Pool Capital, which became a landmark investment by Blue Pool in the consumer goods field.

More well - known is the Tsai family's investment in sports assets. In June 2024, Joe Tsai, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, sold part of his equity to the Koch family, and the total transaction valuation was $6 billion (approximately 43 billion RMB). When he previously purchased the Nets in batches at full price, he spent $3 billion. In just a few years, Joe Tsai's investment doubled.

Also in June last year, the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) sold its equity at a valuation of $450 million (over 3.2 billion RMB), setting a new record for the highest valuation of a women's professional sports club. Behind the team are Joe Tsai and his wife Clara Wu Tsai, who bought the Liberty for over $10 million in 2019.

Back to Alibaba, Joe Tsai is a big advocate of AI.

As early as 2024, he defined Alibaba's development strategy as "user - first, AI - driven" and said: In the next decade, no industry will be immune to the disruption brought by AI. According to Alibaba's latest financial report, the total capital expenditure in fiscal year 2025 is approximately 86 - 92.5 billion RMB, and the vast majority is invested in AI computing power, data centers, and self - developed chips.

At the recent China Development Forum, Joe Tsai analyzed several factors for the success and continuous development of AI in China: the country's strategic layout in power infrastructure, the belief in open - source for mutual benefit, the in - depth integration of AI and manufacturing, and the vast market and application potential. He proposed that the ultimate goal of AI is to popularize its application and benefit society.

Chinese billionaires are starting to embrace family offices

For some time, Blue Pool Capital has been a benchmark for Chinese family offices.

This has long been a trend overseas - just as Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, established his family office Hillspire; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, founded his Bezos Expeditions.

Now, we are seeing more and more Chinese billionaires setting up family offices. They are no longer satisfied with the traditional wealth management and appreciation of family wealth but are also the vanguard for industrial strategic expansion. As a result, their presence has begun to appear frequently in the venture capital circle.

Just after the Spring Festival, Qianxun Intelligence announced the completion of a nearly 2 - billion - RMB financing, with a valuation exceeding 10 billion. When the investment community sorted out the investors, they saw a new face - Minghui Investment, which is the family office of Zhu Xingming, the chairman of Inovance Technology, a leading A - share company; then, Guanglun Intelligence raised 1 billion, and Dingbang Investment, the family office of the chairman of Sanan Optoelectronics, an A - share company, appeared among the investors.

The equally active "Liling Fund" is the family office of Luxshare Precision. In recent years, it has quietly appeared behind many startups, such as Weina Hexin, SMIC Integrated, and Xinlian Power. More well - known is Jiadao Private Capital, which is the family office of Gong Hongjia, "China's most successful angel investor."

These self - made Chinese billionaires are turning their attention to the technology track that concerns the future.

The logic behind this is not difficult to explain. In the new era of technology, relying solely on a company's internal R & D is no longer sufficient to cope with the accelerated global technological iteration. As a flexible and long - term capital tool, family offices have quietly become an important force in promoting China's technological innovation.

This week, the Yuze Xiangjiang Summit, hosted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and focusing on global family offices, was held. "AI and robotics technology" was one of the three special topics for discussion. The direction of the industrial tide is the direction of wealth.

It goes on and on.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012), author: Yang Jiyun, published by 36Kr with authorization.