Zhejiang entrepreneurs are vying for the largest IPO in history.

It's finally coming.

Investment Circle learned that SpaceX secretly submitted its listing documents recently. The fundraising scale could reach up to $75 billion, and the IPO valuation target has been raised to $2 trillion. It is expected to complete the listing in June this year. Thus, the largest IPO in human history is about to be born.

This epic IPO not only affects the sentiment of the domestic commercial space industry but also brings an investment made by Leo Group five years ago unexpectedly into the spotlight.

This listed company led by Zhejiang businessman Wang Xiangrong was originally expected to be the only domestic company to participate in SpaceX in 2021 when the latter's valuation was just $10 billion. However, this investment experienced a dramatic turn from making the investment to getting the money refunded within a week and has been mired in a lawsuit ever since.

Time waits for no one. Leo Group is vying for the largest IPO in history.

Investing in SpaceX Five Years Ago

An Unexpected Turn

It all starts with an announcement five years ago.

Back in November 2021, Leo Group announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Leo Investments HongKong Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Leo Investment"), signed the "Agreement of Limited Partnership of Tomales Bay Capital Anduril III, L.P." The investment target of the partnership is Space Exploration Technologies Corp., namely the well - known SpaceX.

Specifically, the total target subscribed capital contribution of all partners is about $600 million, with a maximum of no more than $750 million. The general partner is TBCA GP, and Leo Investment is a limited partner, planning to subscribe for a capital contribution of $50 million.

At that time, SpaceX reached an agreement with new and old investors to sell up to $755 million worth of shares issued by company insiders at a price of $560 per share. This move increased SpaceX's new valuation from $74 billion in February 2021 to $100.3 billion.

Leo Group attached great importance to this investment. It transferred the investment funds the day after signing the investment agreement, completing the capital contribution to TBCA. As soon as this announcement was made, the stock discussion forum of Leo Group went crazy. The stock price of Leo Group also lived up to expectations, hitting the daily limit for two consecutive days.

However, unexpectedly, a dramatic scene soon occurred.

Just one week after the investment announcement was released, Leo Group announced again that the general partner of TBCA, Tomales Bay Capital Anduril III GP, LLC, sent an email to the company, stating that it could not accept Leo Investment's continued holding of the LP shares and intended to refund the capital contribution of Leo Investment.

Although Leo Group immediately replied in opposition after receiving the email, TBCA quickly refunded $50 million to Leo Investment. In this regard, Leo Group was firm in its attitude, believing that TBCA had no legal basis to terminate the agreement and did not accept the return of the investment funds and the withdrawal of Leo Investment's LP shares. "The company reserves all rights to safeguard its interests, including but not limited to initiating judicial proceedings."

Since then, Leo Group and TBCA have been in a long - standing lawsuit.

Until the end of last year, Leo Group updated the progress of the relevant lawsuit. Although the announcement mentioned that "on June 30, 2025, the overseas court made a first - instance judgment, making a series of factual findings in favor of the company", it should be noted that both parties appealed the first - instance judgment to a higher - level court, and the TBCA fund and TBCA GP also initiated a lawsuit against Leo Group in another jurisdiction. Both cases are still under trial.

Then in January this year, there was a market rumor that "the overseas court made a final judgment, confirming that Leo's equity in SpaceX held through TBCA is legal and valid". At the same time, the stock price of Leo Group fluctuated abnormally. However, Leo Group suspended trading for verification and clarified that there were no major undisclosed matters.

After querying the official website of the overseas court, as of now, there is no publicly verifiable court document or official record to confirm the existence of such a "final winning judgment" in January 2026.

Now, the listing process of SpaceX is accelerating, and it is expected to complete the IPO officially in June. This also means that Leo Group may miss out on a huge return.

The Zhejiang Leader Behind

Investing in Li Auto

In Binhai Town, Taizhou, Zhejiang, there is a "Leo Road", and Leo Group is located on this road.

In 1987, Wang Xiangrong was admitted to the former Hangzhou Chemical Industry School, the predecessor of Zhejiang Gongshang University, majoring in chemical machinery. Since then, he has been closely associated with mechanical manufacturing. After graduating in 1991, he was assigned to the former Wenling Light Industry Electric Machine Factory.

One year after entering the factory, Wang Xiangrong was promoted to the deputy head of the technology department ahead of schedule and was sent to Gansu University of Technology for further study, laying the foundation for his future entrepreneurship.

Then in 1995, Wang Xiangrong decided to establish the Wenling Xinke Water Pump Research Institute and independently developed the SCP180 self - priming pipeline, which was widely recognized by the market as soon as it was launched. Four years later, Wang Xiangrong participated in a European inspection group organized by the Wenling government. This European trip made him discover that there was a huge market for garden pumps in Europe, and the domestic production cost was only half of that in Europe.

So in 2001, Taizhou Leo Electric Co., Ltd., based on the Xinke Water Pump Research Institute, was established and invested nearly 5 million yuan in researching products suitable for the European market. Under the leadership of Wang Xiangrong, Leo successfully introduced its "LEO" brand garden pumps into the EU market that year, becoming the first water pump enterprise in Taizhou to export to the EU.

In 2004, the sales volume of Leo reached 400 million yuan, ranking first in Zhejiang Province and top three in the country in the industry at that time. At the age of 30, Wang Xiangrong was also called the "Pump King" of Taizhou by the outside world. Leo Group also successfully listed on the A - share market in 2007, with a latest market value of nearly 5 billion yuan.

After that, Wang Xiangrong led Leo on a transformation path and carried out a series of acquisitions, covering the entire chain of digital marketing services. To this day, Leo Group has two major main businesses: mechanical manufacturing and digital marketing. It has also caught the wave of AI. Its subsidiary, Leo Digital, continues to promote the layout of AI agents in the marketing field. The company's stock price has doubled in the past year.

What Leo Group is well - known for is an investment in Li Auto many years ago.

Wang Xiangrong once recalled in an interview that when Li Xiang, the founder of Li Auto, approached him in 2016, he had already approached a circle of investors in the industry. After listening to the introduction, Wang Xiangrong thought it was good. "We chatted in the office for about an hour and then decided to invest."

Investing in Li Auto can play a synergistic role with the company in the industry. Tianyancha shows that Leo Group led the Series A and Series A+ financing rounds of Chehejia, the predecessor of Li Auto, in May 2016 and September 2017 respectively, with a total investment of 450 million yuan. "At the highest, our shareholding ratio reached 11.75%. Because the investment amount was very large, we were under a lot of pressure for a while," Wang Xiangrong once said.

Li Auto successfully listed on the NASDAQ in July 2020, and Leo Group finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. With the rising stock price of Li Auto, this 450 - million - yuan investment once had a floating profit of over 10 billion yuan.

It is worth mentioning that Leo Group officially submitted an application for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the end of September last year. Wang Xiangrong is expected to stand on the IPO ringing - the - bell stage again.

The Era of Industrial Investment

Listed Companies, Mass - Producing IPOs

If it weren't for the refund five years ago, it would have been an investment return that would have made history.

However, the venture capital circle has always been like this, never short of stories of missed opportunities and regrets. However, after careful analysis, behind each super case in the venture capital circle, the figures of listed companies and industrial capital are becoming more and more prominent.

Remember in June 2025, Insta360 listed on the A - share market, and its stock price soared all the way, with a market value once exceeding 140 billion yuan. The investors behind it reaped rich rewards. As Thunder's financial report previously revealed: "Thanks to the successful investment of founder Zou Shenglong in Insta360 in 2016, we had a pre - tax floating profit of $720 million (about 5 billion yuan)."

In 2016, Insta360 completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series C financing, led by Thunder. Among them, Thunder held 7.84% of Insta360's equity after its IPO. Although the latter's stock price has fallen, the latest market value corresponding to Thunder's shares is still nearly 6 billion yuan.

Hehetech got on board when Moore Threads was valued at 1.4 billion yuan. At that time, five institutions, including Sequoia China, Matrix Partners China, and Hehetech, participated in the angel round in November 2020. Among them, Hehetech still held 4.1051 million shares when Moore Threads went public, and the latter's market value once reached a new high of 500 billion yuan.

In addition, Century Huatong once announced that due to its indirect investment in Moore Threads, it was expected to bring a net profit of 640 million yuan in the fourth quarter of 2025, accounting for about 53% of the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2024. There is also Yingqu Technology, a consumer electronics listed company, which holds 1.3404 million shares of Moore Threads, with the corresponding equity market value exceeding 700 million yuan.

Zhongke Lanxun bet on both Moore Threads and Muxi. After their listing, it held 0.285% and 0.21% of the shares respectively. Further looking, among the investors behind Muxi, the figures of listed companies such as Septwolves and Chunzhong Technology also emerged.

As Landspace Technology rushes to become the "first stock in commercial space", Goldwind Science & Technology, an early investor, has seen a continuous limit - up market: from January 5th to 12th, 2026, its stock price continuously rose and exceeded 37 yuan per share, with a market value once exceeding 150 billion yuan.

Such cases are numerous. Entrepreneurs are increasingly aware that venture capital is crucial for a company to understand future technological development trends and industrial changes. Therefore, leading enterprises that have grown in recent years generally set up strategic investment departments. In addition, in the past, industrial capital only focused on investing in the upstream and downstream of its own industrial chain, but now the investment perspective is becoming broader.

Remember at the entrepreneur summit series organized by Fortune Capital, Liu Jianwei, the founder of Hehetech, once shared: After listing, making good use of capital for industrial investment and achieving the dual - wheel drive of the main business and investment is an important path for the leap - forward development of enterprises.

It can be seen that under the current economic environment and industrial development trends, leading enterprises with a deep industrial foundation are gradually highlighting their advantages in the venture capital field, which is an important signal for the rise of industrial capital in the era of technology investment.

As the saying goes, those who are excellent in entrepreneurship turn to investment. Listed companies are becoming a new driving force. The era of new industrial investment has begun.

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