Another "sustainable" mother fund worth 10 billion yuan has arrived.

In 2026, the primary market has been experiencing a series of favorable trends. From the central to local levels, positive signals have been intensively released, and the capital structure has also been quietly shifting. Behind this, the signals regarding "patient capital" are becoming increasingly clear.

On the one hand, the durations of mother funds in various regions are being steadily extended, moving towards 15 or 20 years. On the other hand, some regional mother funds are beginning to explore the institutional design of "no fixed duration," evolving into truly "ever - green" capital.

Recently, the venture capital circle has received another significant piece of news - Shaanxi Province has also welcomed a "perpetual mother fund."

Expanded to 10 billion, Shaanxi's first "perpetual mother fund" makes its debut

On March 9th, at the Xi'an Emerging Industry Investment and Development Forum, the Xi'an High - tech Emerging Industry Investment Fund announced a major upgrade, attracting industry attention. According to China Securities Journal, the fund's scale has doubled from 5 billion to 10 billion, and its duration has been adjusted from 30 years to long - term/perpetual.

This means that another mother fund without a fixed duration has arrived.

It is reported that this mother fund was established in 2016, initiated by the Xi'an High - tech Zone Management Committee, with an initial scale of 5 billion yuan. The mother fund focuses on the strategic emerging industries and hard - tech industries that are key to the development of the Xi'an High - tech Zone. It mainly cooperates with other investors through methods such as equity participation to initiate the establishment of funds or increase capital in existing funds, and also supports enterprises within the zone through direct investment.

As of now, it has supported 74 enterprises within the zone through direct investment, participated in 18 sub - funds, with a total sub - fund scale of 16.7 billion yuan and a leverage ratio of 4.9 times.

This further expansion brings new impetus to the industry, and the synchronously adjusted duration arrangement further strengthens the attribute of "patient capital."

In fact, looking back at the entire primary market, the concept of "perpetual mother fund" is not new.

Not long ago, Guangdong Province set a precedent.

In February 2026, Guangdong Province launched a strategic emerging industry guidance fund with a total scale of 100 billion yuan. This guidance fund was wholly established by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Finance, with an initial scale of 50 billion yuan.

The most significant difference from previous funds is that this fund operates in the long - term without a fixed duration and establishes a recycling and rolling investment mechanism for the recovered funds.

At the beginning of the year, two regions successively broke the restrictions on fund duration, which is a perfect example of the industry's efforts to shape patient capital and break the curse of "fear of investment."

In the view of industry insiders, this measure is expected to bring positive structural changes to the industry.

The era of "patient capital" has arrived

For a long time, there has been a significant "mismatch in duration" problem in the market. The contradiction between the fund's duration and the project's growth period has led to difficulties in fund exits, and the market's call for "patient capital" has been increasing.

Recently, Yuan Guohua, a deputy to the National People's Congress and the chairman of Shanghai State - owned Capital Investment Co., Ltd., said in an interview with China Securities Journal: "Future industries generally have characteristics such as high uncertainty, high initial investment, and long return periods, and require more long - term and stable capital support."

Therefore, Yuan Guohua suggested establishing a super - long - term future industry mother fund with a duration of 15 to 20 years, attracting social capital through the "mother fund + sub - fund" model to form a future industry investment system with a scale of tens of billions.

In fact, since the term "patient capital" was proposed in April 2024, "patient capital" has gradually transformed from a hot industry term into practical implementation, and the durations of more and more funds have been extended.

From last year to now, "patient capital" represented by central enterprises, national teams, and social security funds has shown unprecedented activity.

The 10 - billion - yuan central enterprise strategic emerging fund, Chengtong Science and Technology Innovation Investment Fund (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd., which was launched in December 2025, has a duration of 15 years, breaking through the traditional 7 - 10 - year cycle limit of venture capital funds.

At the same time, the three major national venture capital guidance funds, which have attracted market attention, have extended their durations to 20 years (10 - year investment period + 10 - year exit period). In addition, the Luoyang Angel Mother Fund, the Shanghai Future Industry Fund, and special mother funds in many places in Jiangsu have clearly set their durations to 15 or even 20 years, aiming to truly shape an ecosystem of "long - term capital."

Meanwhile, Shenzhen and Shaanxi have successively launched attempts at guidance funds with "no fixed duration," which may fundamentally remove the rigid binding between investment decisions and exit time limits, enabling capital to make long - term layouts based on the laws of technological evolution and industrial growth cycles.

This design provides a stable institutional guarantee for accompanying hard - tech enterprises to cross the "valley of death" and promoting the incubation of original innovation and disruptive technologies, and is expected to guide capital to invest more firmly in the deep - tech areas.

In addition to the extension of the duration, "risk - sharing" has also become another major trend in the development of patient capital.

Since 2025, various provinces and cities have issued measures such as innovation due - diligence fault - tolerance, long - cycle differential assessment, and classified exits to maximize the investment enthusiasm and innovation vitality of business entities.

On January 15th, Guangzhou City issued the "Measures for the Pilot Work of 'Subsidy - to - Investment' in the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in Guangzhou," clearly stipulating that fiscal funds should follow investment laws, tolerate normal risks, and not use the profit and loss of a single project or a single year as the assessment basis, allowing a 100% loss for a single project. When the overall investment loss rate of fiscal funds is controlled within 80% (inclusive), relevant personnel will not be held accountable.

In addition, many places such as Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hubei, and Shandong have also successively proposed to establish a due - diligence exemption mechanism for government - guided funds, and the tolerance rate for losses in some regions can reach up to 100%.

The patience and inclusiveness of the venture capital market are becoming more and more obvious, the path of long - termism is clear, and patient capital is never just an empty slogan.

Conclusion

In the future, as more and more national - level "patient capital" continuously flows in and various regions actively explore, it will not only bring more solid confidence to the venture capital industry but also is expected to drive more regions to align with the concept of "long - termism" in their development ideas.

The construction of this scarce "long - term capital ecosystem" precisely lays the most crucial foundation for the growth of future industries such as hard - tech and artificial intelligence, which have long investment cycles and high technological barriers.

This article is from the WeChat public account "FOFWEEKLY," author: FOFWEEKLY. Republished by 36Kr with permission.