Gome Hydrogen Energy Established: Huang Guangyu, the Former Richest Man, Crosses Sectors Again After Repeated Failures in Business Transformation Four Years After His Release from Prison
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According to information from Qichacha, recently, Beijing Gome Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gome Hydrogen Energy") was officially established. The legal representative is Guan Yubin, and the registered capital is 10 million yuan. The company is 80% owned by Beijing Pengrun Investment Co., Ltd., which is controlled by Huang Guangyu. Beijing Hydrogen Source Core Energy Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Hydrogen Harmony Technology Co., Ltd. hold 15% and 5% of the shares respectively.
Once this industrial and commercial registration information was made public, it attracted wide attention in the industry. Many people believe that this is another "last - ditch battle" made by Huang Guangyu in the trough of his business. The company's equity structure and personnel arrangements highlight Huang Guangyu's absolute control over the hydrogen energy business and also show his high - level dependence on his "trusted team". The legal representative, Guan Yubin, is an old subordinate who has followed him for more than twenty years, which is exactly the same as his management model when he built the empire at Gome Retail.
Looking back at Huang Guangyu's business career, at the peak of his career, he topped the Hurun Rich List twice. In 2004 and 2005, he became the richest man in China with a fortune of 10.5 billion yuan and 14 billion yuan respectively. At that time, the number of Gome Retail stores exceeded 1,000, and the market share was close to 20%. The slogan "Buy home appliances at Gome" resounded across the country.
However, after being imprisoned for economic crimes in 2008, Gome Retail gradually missed the golden period of the rise of e - commerce. By 2017, its market share had shrunk to less than 5%. When Huang Guangyu was released from prison ahead of schedule in February 2021, he boasted that he would "restore the market position in 18 months", but the reality was far more cruel than expected. Although he still had a personal fortune of 24 billion yuan, many subsequent transformation attempts ended in failure.
First, Huang Guangyu launched the "Zhenkuaile" APP, aiming to transform into a social e - commerce platform and investing a huge amount of funds. However, due to unclear positioning and insufficient logistics support, the monthly active users of the APP were only 3 million after one year of launch. Subsequently, he tried to layout the "Dabanjia" home improvement platform, planning to combine "home appliances + home improvement". But ultimately, due to the broken capital chain, the platform shut down in 2023, and the number of employees was cut to less than 10.
In 2023, Gome entered the live - streaming e - commerce on Douyin, but failed to open up the sales channel due to the broken supply chain. The new - energy vehicle sales business attempted at the end of 2024 ended without results after only being piloted in 12 stores across the country. These failed transformation attempts have continuously worsened the operating conditions of Gome Retail.
Financial report data shows that Gome Retail's revenue decreased from 46.484 billion yuan in 2021 to 474 million yuan in 2024, and was only 297 million yuan in the first half of 2025. Its net profit has also continued to be in the red, with a cumulative loss of more than 50 billion yuan from 2021 to the first half of 2025. The asset - liability ratio soared from 78.27% to 209.23%, and the company is insolvent. By the beginning of 2025, Gome Retail had an additional 610 million yuan in enforcement records, and some core stores were sealed up due to unpaid rent. Huang Guangyu's personal fortune also shrank significantly, and he fell out of the top 500 on the Hurun Rich List.
However, just when the outside world thought that the Gome system would completely fade away, Huang Guangyu chose to bet on the hydrogen energy track. On September 12th, at the Hydrogen Energy Green Transportation Ecological Construction Conference, he said: "Hydrogen energy is an important part of the future energy system. Gome's layout in hydrogen energy is not only a responsibility to respond to the country's 'dual - carbon' goal but also a key measure for the group to break through the bottleneck of traditional business and seek a second growth curve."
This statement shows both despair for the traditional retail business and anticipation of the dividends of the new - energy industry. Driven by the goals of "carbon neutrality and carbon peak", the scale of China's hydrogen energy industry exceeded 36.5 million tons in 2024, and the policy subsidies exceeded 20 billion yuan, which provided a valuable opportunity for Huang Guangyu.
In addition, on September 15th, Gome Hydrogen Energy signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Guohydrogen Technology, a subsidiary of SPIC, setting a "Gome speed". It only took 5 days from the company's establishment to locking in a central - state - owned enterprise partner. Industry insiders said that this cooperation can be regarded as a strong alliance of "technology + capital".
According to the agreement, Guohydrogen Technology will open up 7 core patented technologies such as catalysts and proton exchange membranes to Gome Hydrogen Energy and dispatch a technical team to participate in project implementation. Gome Hydrogen Energy will be responsible for capital investment, building hydrogen refueling stations and a hydrogen - powered vehicle operation network. It is planned to layout 20 hydrogen refueling stations in the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region by 2026 and promote 500 fuel - cell logistics vehicles.
This cooperation model is regarded as "complementary advantages". Although Guohydrogen Technology has technological advantages, it lacks market - oriented operation capabilities. While Gome lacks technological accumulation, it has extensive channel resources. Through this cooperation, both parties are expected to quickly make up for their respective shortcomings.
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In fact, Huang Guangyu has shown a rare practical spirit in this cross - border move.
The "dual - intensive" nature of technology and capital, which is the core characteristic of the hydrogen energy industry, determines that cooperation must be based on capital guarantee and equity coordination. The equity structure of Gome Hydrogen Energy, in which Pengrun Investment, controlled by Huang Guangyu with 82.59% of the shares, holds 80% of the shares, has already sent a signal of "binding the business with core capital". To dispel Guohydrogen Technology's concerns about the continuity of funds, the two parties clearly defined the division of labor framework of "the Gome system leads the capital investment, and Guohydrogen Technology outputs technology" in the agreement, which is highly consistent with Guohydrogen Technology's selection logic of "emphasizing capital matching" when introducing investors through capital increase in the past.
What is more noteworthy is the flexibility in the equity arrangement. Although the specific proportion is not disclosed, the "equity coordination" mechanism mentioned by authoritative media such as Reform Net implies that Guohydrogen Technology can obtain corresponding equity through technology investment, which forms a sharp contrast with Huang Guangyu's management style of "absolute control" during the Gome Retail era.
It should be noted that as a technology leader with a central - state - owned enterprise background, Guohydrogen Technology has maintained the model of "stable shareholding of the core technology provider and diversified entry of investors" in the previous three rounds of capital increase. The cooperation with Gome Hydrogen Energy clearly continues this logic. Huang Guangyu gave up the inertial control style of "one - man rule" and reserved equity space for the technology provider, which became the key driving force for the rapid implementation of the cooperation. Behind this concession is not only a compromise to the law of "technology determines success or failure" in the hydrogen energy industry but also highlights his eagerness to seize the transformation opportunity.
Although Huang Guangyu's hydrogen energy layout has received some optimistic expectations, there are still multiple hidden concerns. The first is the capital pressure. The heavy - asset nature of the hydrogen energy industry far exceeds that of the retail industry. The construction cost of a 35MPa hydrogen refueling station is about 12 million yuan, and the procurement cost of 500 fuel - cell logistics vehicles exceeds 800 million yuan. Coupled with subsequent operating subsidies, the capital demand of Gome Hydrogen Energy in the next three years will exceed 2.5 billion yuan. However, the current monetary funds of Gome Retail are only 75.048 million yuan, and it is facing a current debt of 41.8 billion yuan. Although Pengrun Investment has promised to inject capital, its cash flow is not abundant due to the reduction of Gome Retail shares in recent years.
More importantly, Huang Guangyu has almost zero operating experience in the energy industry, which forms a sharp contrast with his proficiency in the retail industry in the past. Looking back at the rise of Gome Retail, Huang Guangyu accurately grasped the dividends of the home appliance consumption upgrade through the model of "low - price strategy + chain expansion". However, the hydrogen energy industry involves multiple links such as technology R & D, policy coordination, and safety management, which is completely different from the "buy - and - sell logic" of the retail industry. Huang Guangyu's previous transformation cases, such as the failure of the Dabanjia APP, also show that he misjudges the characteristics of some industries and blindly applies the retail thinking.
The market's reaction to this is polarized. Some investors believe that Gome Hydrogen Energy has obtained an "entry ticket" through cooperation with Guohydrogen Technology. If it can take advantage of the policy support of the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei hydrogen energy demonstration city cluster, it may achieve a breakthrough in the logistics scenario because the original warehousing and distribution network of Gome Retail can still be transformed into a hydrogen energy logistics hub. However, more industry insiders are on the sidelines. They are worried that in Huang Guangyu's previous transformation projects, there is often the problem of "emphasizing the start - up and neglecting the operation", while the hydrogen energy industry requires long - term and stable investment. Whether Huang Guangyu can be patient and persevere in the long run remains unknown.
Compared with Meijin Energy, which also crossed into the hydrogen energy field, the shortcomings of Gome Hydrogen Energy are more obvious. Previously, the Shanxi coal - boss family spent 7 years building a full - fledged hydrogen energy industry chain with the funds and resources accumulated from the coal industry. In 2024, the revenue of the hydrogen energy business accounted for only 4.16%, and no good results have been seen so far. (For details, please refer to the previous article of Yujian Energy, "After the wealth of the Yao family, the largest coal - boss family in Shanxi, shrank by 25.3 billion yuan, Meijin Energy rushed to Hong Kong for a second listing") It is conceivable that it will be very difficult for Huang Guangyu to achieve a breakthrough in the hydrogen energy track with a lack of industrial foundation and facing a capital dilemma.
For Huang Guangyu, who is 55 years old, this cross - border move into the hydrogen energy field may be his "last fight" in his business career. From the ambition of building a retail empire in the past to running around to save the enterprise today, the transformation path of this former richest man is full of hardships. If he can take advantage of Guohydrogen Technology's technological advantages and combine his own business resources, he may find new vitality for the Gome system. But if he repeats the past pattern of "starting strongly and ending weakly", Gome Hydrogen Energy may become another "failed case" in Huang Guangyu's business map. The road to redemption in the hydrogen energy track has just begun.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Yujian Energy". The author is Ke Yangming. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.