"Long-term investment with long-term capital", the province with the largest economy in China has taken action.

On the morning of May 25th, the launch ceremony of the Guangdong Provincial Strategic Emerging Industry Investment Guidance Fund (hereinafter referred to as the "Guangdong Strategic Emerging Guidance Fund") was held in Guangzhou. Huang Kunming, Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and Meng Fanli, Deputy Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Governor of Guangdong Province, attended the launch ceremony and unveiled the fund. Approved by the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, the Guangdong Provincial Strategic Emerging Industry Investment Guidance Fund was established with a total scale of 100 billion yuan and an initial registered scale of 50 billion yuan. It is the first provincial government investment fund with a perpetual operation model in Guangdong.

The fund will follow the principles of "government guidance, market-oriented operation, and professional management". By constructing the framework of "guidance fund - mother fund - sub - fund", it will give play to the leverage effect and the advantage of "long - term investment with long - term funds", strengthen the positive incentives of "investing in the early - stage, small - scale, long - term, and hard - technology projects", guide and leverage funds from national - level funds, central state - owned enterprises, financial capital, industrial capital, and investment institutions, drive the creation of a trillion - level industrial investment fund cluster, and better promote the construction of Guangdong's modern industrial system.

Recently, high - tech enterprises that have achieved "explosive" growth and frequently made headlines are almost all accompanied and supported by state - owned capital. The logic behind this is not difficult to understand. The growth of high - tech enterprises often needs to cross a long "valley of death" - high R & D investment, long profit cycle, and uncertain technological routes. Purely market - oriented capital is difficult to truly accompany enterprises through the cycle.

As He Xiaopeng, Chairman of Guangdong XPeng Motors Technology Group Co., Ltd., said, for most enterprises, investment planning generally focuses on 2 to 3 years; for market - oriented funds, the standard investment cycle is mostly 5 to 7 years. The leading IPO enterprises in China and even the world that are about to go public this year have generally taken 10 to 25 years from establishment to maturity.

As early as 2024, the Politburo meeting of the Communist Party of China Central Committee first proposed to "strengthen patient capital" and emphasized its important role in supporting original and leading scientific and technological innovation. According to the statistics of the Mother Fund Research Center, among the newly established guidance funds in 2025, 53% already allow the sub - funds to have a term of more than 10 years, and some reach 15 to 20 years.

To continuously strengthen patient capital, the 14th Five - Year Plan of the country proposed to improve the policy system to support the entry of medium - and long - term funds into the market. This is the first time that "patient capital" has been written into the five - year plan. The government work report in 2026 further clarified that "government investment funds should take the lead in being patient capital".

The Guangdong Strategic Emerging Guidance Fund is the first provincial government investment fund with a perpetual operation model in Guangdong. Its key breakthrough lies in having no fixed term, long - term financial investment, and recycling of recovered funds for reinvestment, taking an important step in the exploration of ever - green provincial government investment funds.

From completing industrial and commercial registration on December 18th last year to officially starting investment now, the Guangdong Strategic Emerging Guidance Fund only took half a year to complete key links such as registration and filing, the first capital contribution, and signing of industrial fund intention agreements. One of its goals is to cultivate and strengthen strategic emerging industries and future industries and optimize and upgrade traditional industries.

Specifically, the Guangdong Strategic Emerging Guidance Fund has constructed three major investment layouts of "regional mother funds, industry funds, and strategic direct investment projects", and adopted the strategy of "layout along the industrial chain, implement policies according to different cities, and be led by leading enterprises".

50% of its quota will be invested in industry sub - funds, focusing on strategic emerging industries such as new - generation information technology, new energy, new materials, intelligent manufacturing, biomedicine, and aerospace, as well as future industries such as quantum technology, embodied intelligence, and low - altitude economy. It will give priority to cooperating with leading industrial CVCs and high - quality market - oriented GPs. 30% of the quota will be used for regional mother funds to jointly cultivate local industrial clusters with cities and provinces. 20% will be used for strategic direct investment, focusing on major provincial strategies and large - scale industrial projects.

As experts said, since this year, the deployment of patient capital in various places has shifted from "expanding scale" to "building a system", with more diversified sources of funds; the investment system covers the entire life cycle of science and technology enterprises, promoting the in - depth integration of capital into the innovation chain; and the assessment mechanism has become more long - term. These measures can not only help science and technology enterprises cross the "valley of death", promote the transformation of capital from "fund provider" to "value co - creator", but also guide social capital to gather in national strategic fields.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Urban Evolution Theory", author: Yang Huan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.