Staatliche Vermögensverwaltung von Chengdu, eine Investition mit einer Rendite von 100 Milliarden Yuan

History has proven countless times that waiting might bring super returns.

Over the past decade, Hygon Information has presented multiple return opportunities for its investors. From the moment of its successful IPO, the original shareholders were destined to make profits. In September this year, Hygon Information's stock price reached 270 yuan per share, more than seven times the issue price, and its market value exceeded 600 billion yuan.

Among them, the returns of Chengdu State-owned Assets are the most remarkable.

Early on, when Hygon Information didn't even have its first-generation products, Chengdu State-owned Assets acquired 650 million shares of Hygon Information for less than 1 billion yuan and recouped its cost through two share transfers before the IPO.

To date, the book floating profit of Chengdu State-owned Assets' shareholding still exceeds 100 billion yuan. Meanwhile, the most profitable subsidiary of Hygon Information is based in Chengdu. No one could have imagined that an industrial investment in the past could be so full of imagination.

A Decade to Build a 600-billion-yuan Market Value

The grand feast began a decade ago.

At that time, the global CPU industry landscape was in turmoil. The X86 microprocessors dominated by the United States occupied nearly 90% of the global CPU market. After the "Prism Gate" incident triggered data security concerns, domestic substitution became a pressing issue. Seizing the opportunity, in October 2014, Haitai Technology under Tianjin State-owned Assets initiated the establishment of Hygon Information, aiming at CPU research and development.

Two months after its establishment, Hygon Information launched its first capital increase. Thus, Sugon, Guoke Holdings Co., Ltd., Chengbo Equity Investment, and individual investor Tang Zhimin jointly invested 300 million yuan in Hygon Information. In the following two years, Sugon continuously increased its investment through equity transfer and acquisition and became the "leader" of Hygon Information.

In 2016, when the design of Hygon Information's first-generation product, "Hygon 1," had just started, Intel and AMD across the ocean successively launched important new products. The CPU market opportunity was scarce, and Hygon Information needed funds to build its technological moat at that time.

This was when Chengdu State-owned Assets stepped in.

In January 2016, Haifu Tianding Partnership, Tang Zhimin, Chengdu Hi-tech Investment Group, and Chengdu Industrial Investment Group jointly increased the capital of Hygon Information. Among them, the first two investors were the employee shareholding platform and strategic scientists of Hygon Information respectively, while Chengdu Hi-tech Investment Group and Chengdu Industrial Investment Group, both belonging to Chengdu State-owned Assets, were external investors.

Information shows that the capital increase price at that time was 1.25 yuan per registered capital. Calculated, the actual investment cost for Chengdu State-owned Assets to acquire 650 million shares was about 813 million yuan.

After the funds were in place, Hygon Information's product R & D progressed steadily: In 2018, Hygon Information's first-generation CPU, Hygon 1, went into mass production; two years later, Hygon 2 was successfully launched.

As the prospects became clearer, investors flocked in one after another. In 2020, it was extremely bustling. Hygon Information held two rounds of financing in a row. Jinshi Zhiyu Investment under CITIC Securities, Jiaokong Jinshi Fund, Hundun Investment of futures tycoon Ge Weidong, as well as more than a dozen entities such as Kunshan State-owned Assets, Guoke Ruihua Fund, Ningbo Shangcheng, Zhongke Turing Investment, Jinlian Asset Management, Rongtai No. 5 Investment, Taisheng Equity Investment, and Tianchuang Huixin Investment entered at a price of 11.21 yuan per share, raising a total of about 2.7 billion yuan that year.

It wasn't until August 2022 that the financing door before the IPO closed. Hygon Information successfully listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, raising 10.8 billion yuan and creating the largest IPO in the semiconductor field that year.

Chengdu State-owned Assets Earned Billions in One Battle

All the investors behind Hygon Information made profits. After the listing, the stock price of Hygon Information has never been lower than the financing price before the IPO.

What's even more impressive is the current situation. With the surge in the demand for global AI large model training and other aspects in 2025, the wave of domestic computing power substitution has arrived. In addition, in June this year, Hygon Information announced that it would absorb and merge Sugon to strengthen the computing power industry ecosystem. In September this year, the stock price of Hygon Information repeatedly hit record highs, and its market value exceeded 600 billion yuan.

The latest scene is that on September 24th, Hygon Information closed at 259 yuan per share, more than seven times the issue price three years ago. Those who have held on until now have received super returns.

Here, we have to mention Chengdu State-owned Assets.

Actually, Chengdu State-owned Assets had already recouped its investment cost through two share transfers before the listing. Data shows that in November 2018, Chengdu Industrial Investment Group and Chengdu Hi-tech Investment Group transferred 195 million shares of Hygon Information to Sugon at a price of 1.07 billion yuan; then in December 2019, Chengdu Industrial Investment Group publicly listed and transferred 60 million shares of Hygon Information it held on the Southwest United Property Exchange at a price of 673 million yuan.

After these two transfers, after deducting the investment cost in 2016, Chengdu State-owned Assets still made a substantial net profit.

More importantly, currently, Chengdu Industrial Investment Group, Chengdu Hi-tech Investment Group, and Chengdu Jicui are acting in concert. They hold a total of 396 million shares of Hygon Information. Based on the current stock price of 259 yuan per share, the book floating profit of Chengdu State-owned Assets has already exceeded 100 billion yuan.

Such a battle is rare even in the history of venture capital.

Of course, the winners are not limited to this. For example, Hundun Investment subscribed for 44.59 million shares of Hygon Information with 499 million yuan in 2020. After Hygon Information's successful IPO, Hundun Investment reduced its holdings of Hygon Information by more than 26 million shares in 2023 and 2024, reaping quite a rich harvest. So far, Hundun Investment still holds 17.4981 million shares of Hygon Information, corresponding to a market value of more than 4.5 billion yuan.

There is also Li Jinyang, the actual controller of Chifeng Gold. As a limited partner of Ningbo Dacheng and Ningbo Shangcheng, she indirectly invested about 550 million yuan in Hygon Information. After Hygon Information's listing, these two institutions cashed out about 1.7 billion yuan in total through external share transfers in 2024, which was enough to cover the initial investment costs of the two institutions and Li Jinyang.

With the cancellation of these two institutions, now Li Jinyang directly holds 65.7329 million shares of Hygon Information. According to the current stock price, the corresponding market value also exceeds 17 billion yuan, and the return is equally amazing.

Enlightenment from Industrial Investment Promotion

"Chengdu State-owned Assets has won big." After the sigh, there are still many aspects worth pondering in this case.

What the outside world may not know is that after the investment in 2016, two core subsidiaries of Hygon Information, Hygon Integrated and Hygon Microelectronics, were soon established in Chengdu. Later, these two subsidiaries grew into the two major revenue drivers of Hygon Information. For example, in the first half of 2025, Hygon Integrated alone achieved a revenue of 4.76 billion yuan, nearly 90% of Hygon Information's total revenue, and became the leading enterprise in the integrated circuit design industry in Chengdu and even Sichuan Province.

As Hygon Information's strategic reorganization of Sugon progresses and is implemented, the value of Chengdu's investment continues to rise. Looking back now, it seems like a story of a bole meeting a thousand - mile horse.

It was around 2015 that Chengdu began to cultivate domestic substitution projects in the integrated circuit track through investment. After searching, Hygon Information, which was deploying domestic CPU business, came into the sight of the government team.

"At that time, we reported the project information immediately. The municipal Party committee and the municipal government thought it was a great opportunity." A person from Chengdu Industrial Group later publicly recalled. This investment was not a pure financial investment but "investment - driven introduction" - introducing major projects through investment to drive the development of the local industrial chain. Later, after Hygon Integrated and Hygon Microelectronics were established in Chengdu High - tech Zone, the local government also provided support in many aspects, such as providing incubation space carriers and coordinating banks to provide large - scale funds.

Thus, a leading enterprise in the industrial chain took root in Chengdu.

"All regions are cultivating leading enterprises in the industrial chain." This scene is very familiar to us. Currently, local governments are gradually changing their investment promotion model to an industrial creation model, introducing specific enterprises purposefully to fill the local industrial gaps.

Just like when Hefei introduced BOE back then. In 2008, promoted by Hefei Industrial Investment Group, Hefei spared no expense to invest in the then - loss - making BOE, which drove the settlement of upstream and downstream supporting enterprises such as panel, glass substrate, polarizer, and driver IC in the local area. Now Hefei has become one of the world's largest flat - panel display bases, and the early equity investment in BOE has also brought back hundreds of billions in returns.

Across mountains and rivers, the fate of a city's certain industry may be tied to one or two leading enterprises in the industrial chain. Currently, the wave of China's industrial transformation is surging, and historical opportunities are once again presented to most cities.

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