Beijing is about to witness a commercial space IPO.

Commercial space industry ushers in its golden era.

China's commercial space industry has finally moved from the stage of "burning money and telling stories" to "lining up to enter the capital market". In the first quarter of 2026, the global commercial space industry reached a historic turning point. The number of Starlink satellites in orbit officially exceeded 10,000, and Elon Musk is planning to launch the world's largest IPO with a valuation of $17.5 trillion. The domestic capital market responded with an explosive surge. The financing amount in just one quarter reached 8.02 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6 times. Capital is flowing crazily into this trillion-dollar track that combines national strategy and market dividends.

Recently, the news that Beijing Micro and Nano Space Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Micro and Nano Space") has completed the IPO counseling acceptance was also disclosed. This means that this commercial space unicorn, led by top students from Beijing Institute of Technology and known as the "satellite factory", is one step closer to truly entering the capital market.

From submitting the counseling filing on September 15, 2025, to recently submitting the completion report, it only took a little over seven months to complete the counseling period, indicating a rapid listing process. At the beginning of this year, they just completed a round of Pre-IPO financing, and their value soared. Currently, their valuation has firmly exceeded the 7 billion yuan mark. Behind them are top-tier capitals such as CDB Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund, Shenzhen Capital Group, and CITIC Construction making collective high-stakes bets.

In the past few years, when people mentioned the commercial space industry, their first reaction was often Elon Musk, SpaceX, and Starlink. Although China's commercial space industry has seen lively financing, there has always been a question from the outside world: When will these companies really make money? When will they become the "Chinese version of SpaceX"? Now, the answers are gradually emerging. Companies like LandSpace, CAS Space, Galaxy Space, Tianbing Technology, and now Micro and Nano Space are no longer satisfied with financing in the primary market and are starting to officially target IPOs.

Behind this, it means that the entire industry has undergone fundamental changes.

1

Top students from Beijing Institute of Technology make high-stakes bets.

Many people think that most entrepreneurs in China's commercial space industry are Internet capital players, but that's not the case at all. Many of those who have really succeeded in this wave have deep backgrounds in the military, aerospace, and scientific research.

Gao Enyu, the founder of Micro and Nano Space, is a typical example. He graduated from Beijing Institute of Technology and is a doctor of aerospace engineering jointly trained with Pennsylvania State University in the United States. In China's aerospace landscape, Beijing Institute of Technology has always been a remarkably low-key presence, with the prominent background of being one of the "Seven Sons of National Defense".

This university has a very special temperament in China's technology circle. It's low-key but hardcore. It doesn't make it to the hot searches every day like Tsinghua and Peking Universities, but most of the core talents in China's military, aerospace, weapons, radar, and unmanned systems fields are somehow related to Beijing Institute of Technology, and Gao Enyu grew up in this system.

After graduating, he naturally entered the core of the "national team" under the China National Space Administration - the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and the China Academy of Space Technology. He served as the chief designer and director designer of the overall system within the system and participated in the overall design of several major national launch vehicles and communication satellites. That was a "iron rice bowl" that many people dreamed of, guarding national major projects, having access to the most advanced satellite technologies, and even being able to foresee what life would be like after retirement decades later.

In 2015, generally regarded as the "first year" of China's commercial space industry, the policy restrictions were quietly loosened. Across the ocean, Elon Musk was leading SpaceX in crazy trial and error, and a group of young people in China couldn't sit still. Gao Enyu keenly realized at that time that when SpaceX's Starlink project started to weave a net in space, it was only a matter of time before the Chinese commercial satellite market would explode.

Instead of staying in the stable environment of the system, he accurately grasped the market gap in private satellite manufacturing. In August 2017, he resolutely quit his "iron rice bowl" and started his own business. He named the company "Micro and Nano Space", which reveals an ambition of "seeing the big from the small".

Interestingly, the team even worried about "whether there would be enough satellite missions to do" at that time. But the market responded astonishingly quickly. Just three months after the company was established, it earned more than 1 million yuan from selling satellite products. Subsequently, large orders worth hundreds of millions of yuan, such as the "Hainan-1" project, followed one after another, proving this top student's keen business sense.

2

What supports its 7 billion yuan valuation?

The answer is actually four words: satellite manufacturing ability.

Many people misunderstand the commercial space industry and think that the core competitiveness lies in rockets. In fact, in the future large-scale commercialization stage, satellite manufacturing will be an even bigger market.

No matter how high the frequency of rocket launches is, they ultimately serve satellites. Satellites are the terminals that truly create continuous data and commercial value. This logic is similar to the Internet era. Rockets are like "couriers", while satellites are the real "smartphones". The core business of Micro and Nano Space is the R & D and manufacturing of complete satellites and ground station systems. It may sound very technical, but actually, it not only manufactures satellites but also is responsible for the basic capabilities of satellite "landing and operation".

This is very crucial. The biggest problem in China's commercial space industry in the past was that some were responsible for launches, some for satellite manufacturing, and some for applications, but there were often gaps in the middle, resulting in "a bustling sky but no money on the ground". In recent years, Micro and Nano Space has been strengthening one thing - turning satellites into truly commercially deliverable products. It doesn't just make "research satellites"; it mainly targets real scenarios such as remote sensing monitoring, ocean observation, emergency management, and smart cities.

To put it simply, it is transforming from an "aerospace engineering" company into a "data infrastructure" company. This change is very important because what the commercial space industry fears most is having only the foundation but no application scenarios. We talk about the vast universe every day, but in the end, no one is willing to pay. However, if satellite data can really be applied in agriculture, energy, transportation, and urban governance, the logic will be completely different.

Moreover, the Chinese market is booming. In the past few years, the demand for low-orbit satellites and remote sensing satellites in China has been continuously increasing. Especially local governments, the energy system, and the emergency system have an increasing demand for satellite data. The reason is simple: collecting data from the ground is too slow and expensive, while satellites can provide low-cost and high-frequency coverage, and the commercial value is starting to be truly realized. This is also why Chinese commercial space companies have suddenly started to go public in the past two years. Because the industry has entered the "commercial realization stage" from the "technology verification stage", and capital has started to bet again.

But Gao Enyu obviously made the right bet because the entire industry is changing. With the explosion of demand for remote sensing, communication, low-orbit Internet, meteorological monitoring, and urban governance, the demand for satellites in China has entered a real growth cycle. In the past, one satellite served the whole country. Now, many scenarios require a "satellite constellation", dozens, hundreds, or even thousands or tens of thousands of satellites. What does this mean? It means that satellites are starting to transform from "scientific research equipment" into "industrial products", and Micro and Nano Space has caught this turning point. Judging from the results, it has indeed succeeded.

In the past few years, Micro and Nano Space has completed several rounds of financing. In 2022, the company completed nearly 400 million yuan in Series B and Series B+ financing; in June 2024, it completed 1 billion yuan in Series C1 financing; in 2025, it completed a total of 1.56 billion yuan in equity financing and completed the Pre-IPO round of financing in January 2026. The market valuation once reached 7 billion yuan, which is quite remarkable in today's primary market environment.

3

Why has capital suddenly become bullish on the commercial space industry?

Because the entire industry logic has completely changed. In the past, the biggest label of the commercial space industry was "sentiment"; now it is starting to become "new infrastructure". The difference between the two is huge. Sentiment means telling stories, while new infrastructure means national strategy, industrial investment, and long-term investment.

In the past few years, after China's low-orbit satellite Internet was officially included in the national strategy, the entire industrial implementation has been reconfigured. Satellites are no longer just part of the aerospace system; they are starting to become part of the communication system, data system, and intelligent system. To put it simply, in the future, many things will rely on satellites in the sky. Autonomous driving requires high-precision positioning, cross-border communication requires low-orbit networks, the energy system requires remote sensing, and AI requires massive amounts of spatio-temporal data. All these will ultimately drive up the demand for satellites.

This is also why the commercial space industry is becoming more and more like the new energy industry 10 years ago: burning money in the early stage, weeding out in the middle stage, and the winner taking all in the end. Capital is well aware of the high risks here, but the problem is that once the industry matures, the market space will be extremely huge. So the current attitude is very delicate. On one hand, they are extremely cautious; on the other hand, they are afraid of missing out because everyone knows that China will definitely have its own SpaceX ecosystem. The question is, who will be the one to survive?

Currently, the industry has started to show obvious stratification. Some companies focus on rockets, some on satellites, some on applications, and a group of companies are starting to target IPOs. This means that China's commercial space industry is moving from "start-up stories" to "industrial competition". The special thing about Micro and Nano Space is that it has caught the most easily overlooked but potentially first-to-be-commercialized link.

This logic is actually very similar to that of the new energy vehicle industry. At first, people thought the core of new energy vehicles was the engine, but later they found that the real core lies in the supply chain, manufacturing capabilities, and scale. The same will be true for the commercial space industry in the future. The one who ultimately wins may not be the one who can tell the best stories but the one with the most industrialized capabilities.

Of course, the problems are also very real. The commercial space industry is still a super money-burning industry. Every step, from R & D, manufacturing, testing, to launching, requires a large amount of capital, and the industry cycle is extremely long. Many companies may not survive until they really start making a profit. This is also why many companies in the industry are rushing to go public now. Because it's getting harder and harder to get money from the primary market, and everyone is looking for "long-term capital" in the secondary market. Whether the capital market will continue to be willing to invest in the commercial space industry, no one really knows. But one thing is clear: when more and more commercial space companies start to go public, China's commercial space industry is no longer just a "future story"; it is truly entering the industrial realization stage.

Whether Micro and Nano Space can become a successful company in China's commercial satellite track may still need time to prove, but at least it has taken the lead in reaching the door of the capital market.

When commercial space companies start to go public in batches, is the real reshuffle coming soon?

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investors", author: Duchen. Republished by 36Kr with permission.