By investing in Moore Threads, Musi Technology, and Hygon, Chengdu State-owned Assets has achieved remarkable success.
The successive listings of Moore Threads and Magic Core Computing have ignited the capital market's enthusiasm for the domestic GPU track. Their astonishing performance on the first day of listing has brought substantial returns to investors.
As the "first domestic GPU stock," Moore Threads saw its stock price surge by over 500% at its peak on the first day, reaching 688 yuan, and its market value once exceeded 300 billion yuan. Magic Core Computing opened at 700 yuan, and its market value exceeded 350 billion yuan. The maximum profit for individual investors who won a lottery for one lot of its shares reached up to 400,000 yuan, making it a rare "super profitable lottery ticket" recently.
Behind these two companies stand dozens of institutions sharing this wealth feast. For ordinary institutions, it is already remarkable to bet on one popular market project, and those that can bet on both are undoubtedly big winners.
Although such institutions are few, they do exist. When examining these institutions, we also discovered a "dark horse" in chip investment emerging from the west: the state - owned capital of Chengdu High - tech Zone appeared behind both of these IPOs. It invested in Moore Threads and Magic Core Computing at the Pre - IPO stage, injecting 50 million yuan and 150 million yuan respectively.
Moreover, behind the chip giant Hygon Information, which went public earlier and has a market value of over 100 billion yuan, Chengdu High - tech Zone is the second - largest shareholder, reaping returns in the tens of billions of yuan.
Previously, Hefei's state - owned assets rescued BOE and NIO in difficult times, leaving a good story in the venture capital field. Now, by continuously betting on three chip giants with market values of over 100 billion yuan, Chengdu High - tech Zone has not only obtained substantial financial returns but also retained the entire industrial chain in Chengdu, which is also regarded as a masterstroke.
A Return of 100 Billion
How did the state - owned assets of a western province manage to bet on star companies from Beijing and Shanghai? What is the driving force behind this?
It all starts with Hygon Information, a strategic layout that began eight years ago.
In 2016, the high - end processor market in China was almost completely dominated by Intel and AMD. Although the concept of domestic CPUs was popular, the road ahead was unclear, and there were few commercial successes.
At this time, a team of state - owned assets from Chengdu, composed of Chengdu Industrial Investment Group and Chengdu Hi - tech Investment Group, made a very bold decision at that time: to invest approximately 813 million yuan in a startup called Hygon Information.
This amount of money was not a small sum for local state - owned assets. According to insiders involved in the project, the investment from Chengdu Industrial Investment alone accounted for more than half a year's profit of the group at that time. The decision - makers faced huge pressure and doubts - what were the chances of success in investing in a company with an unknown technical path, unlaunched products, and facing all - around suppression from international giants?
Hygon Information did not disappoint. In 2018, Hygon Information's first - generation CPU, Hygon 1, went into mass production; two years later, it successfully launched Hygon 2. As the prospects became clearer, investors flocked in one after another, and more funds were injected.
After six years of development, in August 2022, 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.
More remarkably, all the investors behind Hygon Information made money, and the stock price after listing has basically never fallen below the financing price before the IPO.
Among all the shareholders, the returns of Chengdu's state - owned assets were the most prominent.
At the end of 2018 and 2019, Chengdu's state - owned assets transferred part of their equity in Hygon Information in two installments. They transferred equity to Zhongke Shuguang, an original shareholder of Hygon Information, and publicly listed the equity on the Beijing Property Exchange, cumulatively recovering approximately 1.743 billion yuan in funds.
This means that before Hygon Information officially entered the Science and Technology Innovation Board, Chengdu had fully recovered its initial investment of 813 million yuan and achieved a net profit of over 900 million yuan.
After the listing, through platforms such as Chengdu Industrial Investment and Chengdu Hi - tech Investment, Chengdu's state - owned assets still jointly hold approximately 395 million shares of Hygon Information, accounting for 17% of the total share capital, making it the second - largest shareholder after Zhongke Shuguang.
With the advancement of the national "East - to - West Computing" project and the wave of domestic computing power substitution, the market value of Hygon Information once exceeded 600 billion yuan. The book value of the remaining equity held by Chengdu's state - owned assets also climbed to tens of billions or even nearly 100 billion yuan. This is completely "pure profit."
Over nearly a decade, from an 800 - million - yuan investment to a return of over 100 billion yuan, this investment has created another myth in the history of local government industrial investment in China.
Retaining the Industry
Chengdu's strategic layout doesn't stop there. There are many details behind this that are worth exploring.
At that time, although Chengdu had already established a foothold in the integrated circuit industry with Intel's packaging and testing base, the industrial chain was incomplete, especially in the core "chip design" segment, which was almost blank. Introducing Hygon Information was to fill this crucial gap.
In practice, the high - tech zone abandoned the traditional approach of land concessions and tax subsidies and adopted a new model of "investment - driven introduction": real - money equity investment. This was internally compared to "opening a restaurant together." Chengdu provided the funds and the venue, while Hygon Information provided the technology and the team, with the goal of creating the "domestic CPU" dish.
Here is some background information. Before introducing Hygon Information, Chengdu High - tech Zone had already introduced Verisilicon, a leading enterprise in China's semiconductor IP, in April 2013 through "ecological investment promotion." In the reports of Tianfu Software Park, Verisilicon, Hygon Information, and GPU companies are regarded as the core engines driving the industrial cluster.
As soon as the investment agreement for Hygon Information was finalized in 2016, the wheels of industrial implementation started turning rapidly.
The two most core subsidiaries of Hygon Information - Hygon Integrated Circuit Design Co., Ltd., responsible for CPU chip design, and Hygon Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., a joint - venture with AMD for technology licensing - quickly completed their registration and settlement in Chengdu High - tech Zone. One is the "brain" of R & D, and the other is the "heart" of technology.
Chengdu High - tech Zone played the role of an all - around "partner." It provided office space, helped solve the concerns of the senior management team, assisted in connecting with local financial resources, and actively sought support from industrial policies at all levels. These services enabled Hygon Information to take deep root in Chengdu.
Now, Hygon Integrated has become the absolute revenue pillar of Hygon Information, contributing over 90% of the revenue for a long time. It has completely transformed from an "introduced subsidiary" into the "core engine" driving the group forward. A "chain - leading" enterprise in integrated circuit design with a scale of tens of billions of yuan has emerged in Chengdu.
The real value of Hygon Information lies in its ability to activate the entire industrial chain with a key move.
Like a magnet, Hygon Information has attracted a large number of talents and enterprises in the fields of chip design, software adaptation, packaging and testing. It has completely changed the pattern of Chengdu's integrated circuit industry, which was previously dominated by packaging and testing, filled the gap in high - end chip design, and enabled Chengdu to have a complete say in the national integrated circuit industry from design, manufacturing to packaging and testing.
Against this backdrop, it is reasonable to see Chengdu High - tech Zone capture Moore Threads and Magic Core Computing.
Investing in Moore Threads and Magic Core Computing
If the investment in Hygon Information was the pioneering work of Chengdu High - tech Zone's "investment - driven introduction" strategy, then the investments in Moore Threads and Magic Core Computing are more precise and efficient.
Different from the early heavy investment in Hygon Information, the investments in Moore Threads and Magic Core Computing by Chengdu High - tech Zone were made at the Pre - IPO stage. The return cycle is shorter, but it still requires unique insights.
In November 2023, just before Moore Threads submitted its listing application, Chengdu Ceyuan Fund under Chengdu Hi - tech Investment Group resolutely invested 50 million yuan for capital increase. Investing at this time indicated strong confidence in the company's technical path and listing process. When Moore Threads listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board as the "first domestic GPU stock" in December 2025 and its stock price soared, this investment quickly achieved a floating profit of over 7 times.
The investment in Magic Core Computing was also a "lightning - fast operation." In early 2025, the listing process of Magic Core Computing was very clear. Chengdu Jiaozi Fund invested 150 million yuan in March. Just nine months later, on the first day of Magic Core Computing's listing, its stock price skyrocketed by nearly 700%, and the market value of this investment once soared to over 2.1 billion yuan, achieving a return of over 13 times.
These two investments are not just simple financial arrangements.
Both companies had completed their strategic layouts in Tianfu Software Park in 2021. Moore Threads settled in Area E of Tianfu Software Park and established an important R & D center; Magic Core Computing established a Chengdu subsidiary in Area A of Tianfu Software Park as its strategic fulcrum in the southwest region.
It is worth mentioning that Enflame Technology, one of the "Four Little Dragons of Domestic GPUs," also established a subsidiary and settled in Chengdu High - tech Zone's AI Innovation Center in 2021.
It can be said that before the real - money investment, Chengdu had attracted the R & D centers of these enterprises to settle through its high - quality industrial environment. Therefore, the investment is the "result" rather than the "cause."
With the growth of Hygon Information, Moore Threads, and Magic Core Computing, the venture capital story of Chengdu High - tech Zone has become a reality.
Looking back at the history of Chengdu High - tech Zone: It was established in 1988 and was approved as one of the first batch of national high - tech zones in 1991. In 2015, it became the first national independent innovation demonstration zone in the west.
After more than three decades of development, the regional GDP of Chengdu High - tech Zone reached 383.48 billion yuan in 2025, making it an engine of regional economic growth. Its industries have also completed iterative upgrades, evolving from an initial software outsourcing base to a major hub for artificial intelligence and chip design.
In recent years, Chengdu High - tech Zone has continued to make efforts in the capital market. It has established a digital economy industrial investment fund with a scale of 1 billion yuan and an angel fund of 200 million yuan, adhering to the principle of "investing early, investing in small enterprises, and investing for the long - term."
In March 2025, Chengdu High - tech Zone also released its first special policy for the artificial intelligence (robot) industry, established a 10 - billion - yuan artificial intelligence industrial mother fund, and launched a subsidy of 300 million yuan in total to support enterprises in terms of computing power, models, and application scenarios.
This article is from the WeChat official account "China Venture Capital News". Author: Riemann. Republished by 36Kr with permission.