WeLion has a valuation of 20 billion yuan and Qing Tao is valued at 27.9 billion yuan. Between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University, who is the real trump card behind the solid-state battery industry?
Weilan and Qingtao are heading for IPOs on the A-share and Hong Kong stock markets respectively, kicking off head-to-head competition in the solid-state battery track between teams from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University.
Energy Foresight notes that in August, one of the most high-profile events in the solid-state battery sector is that Weilan New Energy has officially launched its Pre-IPO round of financing, with a target size of 20 billion yuan and a pre-money valuation of about 200 billion yuan.
The company, spun off from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, submitted its IPO counseling filing for the ChiNext Board to the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau on December 10, 2025, with China Securities Construction Investment as the sponsoring broker. By the end of June 2026, it had completed the second phase of counseling. If progress goes smoothly, it will be listed on the ChiNext Board in 2027.
However, the title of "first solid-state battery stock" is far from guaranteed. Back in April 2026, another solid-state battery unicorn Qingtao Energy submitted its IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, planning to raise USD 700 million to 900 million. After completing its Series H financing in February 2026, Qingtao's valuation reached about 27.9 billion yuan. The two enterprises, one targeting the ChiNext Board of the A-share market and the other aiming for the Hong Kong stock market, are racing toward their listing goals.
On the surface it is a listing competition between the two companies, but at its core it is a head-on collision between two top Chinese universities in the solid-state battery track. Between the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University, whose technology can deliver higher energy density?
The "national team" origin from the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Weilan New Energy has a unique background that sets it apart from its peers from the very beginning.
The company was co-founded by Chen Liquan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Li Hong, researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Yu Huigen, professor-level senior engineer.
The 85-year-old Chen Liquan, known as the "Father of Chinese Lithium Batteries", was the doctoral supervisor of Zeng Yuqun, the founder of CATL. As early as 2013, Chen Liquan put forward a forward-looking view that China must develop solid-state lithium batteries. Weilan New Energy is exactly the industrial implementation of this judgment, serving as the only industrialization platform for the solid-state battery technology of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Yu Huigen is the person who turned laboratory technology into mass-produced products. Born in 1968, he graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Lanzhou University in 1992, holds a doctorate in innovative leading engineering from Tsinghua University, and is a professor-level senior engineer. He once served as the chief engineer of BAIC New Energy, and has years of working experience in automakers, so he knows exactly what vehicle manufacturers need. In 2016, he co-founded Weilan New Energy with Chen Liquan and Li Hong, and based on the "in-situ solidification" concept, established the solid-state battery technical route that integrates oxides and polymers.
This background is of great importance. Weilan New Energy is not a team of scientists working on technology behind closed doors, but an organization led by industry-savvy professionals who leverage top scientific research resources to directly target mass production. Yu Huigen currently holds 10.43% of the company's shares, making him the largest individual shareholder. He controls a total of 29.25% of the equity through direct shareholding, indirect shareholding and concert party arrangements.
The shareholder list also proves this point. NIO Capital, Xiaomi Yangtze River Industrial Fund, Huawei Hubble Investment, Geely Holding — all automakers and tech giants are on the list. Tianqi Lithium, Huayou Cobalt, Semcorp — none of the upstream material leaders are absent. China Three Gorges Corporation, Haibo Sichuang — downstream application scenario players are also involved. In addition, there are "national team" investors including ICBC Capital, China Development Bank Capital, Beijing Green Energy and Low Carbon Industry Investment Fund.
These are not ordinary financial investments. Automakers are locking in future battery supplies, material enterprises are securing positions for the next-generation technical route, and state-owned energy central enterprises are laying out energy storage upgrades. Weilan New Energy has raised more than 25 billion yuan in total through 9 rounds of financing in the past, with shareholders increasing their holdings continuously from the angel round to the Pre-IPO round.
A different approach from the Tsinghua-affiliated team
Qingtao Energy has taken a completely different path.
Founder Nan Cewen is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Tsinghua University, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research in the solid-state battery field has spanned more than 20 years. Almost all core members of Qingtao's team are from Tsinghua University. Its technical route adopts the oxide electrolyte system, starting from semi-solid batteries and gradually transitioning to all-solid-state batteries.
However, Qingtao's industrialization path is significantly different from that of Weilan.
Weilan has a diversified product line, with shipments covering three major sectors: power batteries, energy storage batteries, and low-altitude economy-related batteries, so it does not put all its eggs in one basket.
Qingtao follows a deep-binding development route. SAIC Motor is the largest industrial investor of Qingtao, and the two sides have established a joint venture, SAIC Qingtao, which has a planned annual production capacity of 30 GWh. Qingtao's first-generation semi-solid battery has been installed in the SAIC IM L6 model, and its second-generation product is currently under development. Qingtao has also entered CATL's supplier system, providing solid electrolyte materials for CATL.
The advantage of this deep-binding model is very straightforward: stable orders come with vehicle sales, and orders can drive large-scale production. SAIC Motor's new energy vehicle sales exceeded 1.2 million units in 2024, a scale that brings stable shipment expectations for battery enterprises.
Although Weilan has a large number of customers, the procurement volume of a single customer is far less than the order scale that SAIC provides to Qingtao. NIO delivered about 220,000 vehicles in 2024, which is not in the same volume level as SAIC.
In terms of technology coverage, Weilan takes the lead. It is developing the three sectors of power, energy storage and low-altitude economy at the same time, so it can capture the growth opportunities from any of the tracks. In particular, for the energy storage sector, the long cycle life and high safety performance of solid-state batteries are naturally attractive for large-scale energy storage projects. Once central enterprise clients such as China Three Gorges Corporation and State Power Investment Corporation switch to solid-state batteries on a large scale, the order volume may far exceed that of the vehicle market.
In terms of production capacity scale, Weilan also leads. Its current annual production capacity is 28.2 GWh, while Qingtao's planned production capacity will reach 35.2 GWh by the end of 2026. However, many of Weilan's 100+ GWh capacity plans are long-term targets, and the actual production capacity that can be released in the short term may not be much higher than that of Qingtao.
What exactly makes this battery so outstanding? Why is everyone chasing it?
To understand why these two companies are valued at 200 billion yuan, we first need to figure out what problems solid-state batteries solve.
Liquid lithium-ion batteries have been used for 30 years, with mature technology and low cost, but two inherent flaws have never been fully resolved. The first is flammability — mobile phone battery fires and electric vehicle spontaneous combustion all stem from the liquid electrolyte. The substance is as flammable as gasoline, and once it leaks or short circuits, thermal runaway is extremely difficult to control. The second is that the energy density of liquid lithium-ion batteries has approached its limit. The ceiling for liquid batteries is around 300 Wh/kg, and any further increase in energy density will make safety performance even harder to guarantee.
Solid-state batteries replace the liquid electrolyte with solid materials. This simple replacement brings three core advantages: no risk of fire, longer driving range, and faster charging speed.
The no-fire performance comes from the non-flammable nature of the solid electrolyte itself, which is not prone to thermal runaway even under collision or puncture. Longer driving range is achieved because the energy density of solid-state batteries can reach 400 Wh/kg or even higher. With the same weight, the battery capacity is more than 30% higher, which can extend the driving range of an electric vehicle directly to 1000 kilometers. Faster charging is realized because the solid electrolyte has higher lithium ion conduction efficiency, and lab tests have achieved 80% charge in 10 minutes.
The 360 Wh/kg semi-solid batteries that Weilan is currently mass producing have broken through the ceiling of traditional liquid batteries. The real next milestone to tackle is all-solid-state batteries, which completely remove the remaining liquid components. Yu Huigen has set a timetable to realize all-solid-state battery mass production in Pingshan, Shenzhen in 2027. Qingtao led by Nan Cewen is also targeting the same approximate time window.
The one that crosses the finish line first will claim the title of the real "first solid-state battery stock".
Two different routes, one final destination
The competition between Weilan and Qingtao is essentially the industrialization-level duel between the academic accumulation of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University.
Chen Liquan's team has been conducting solid-state battery research earlier than almost any other institution in China. When he proposed that China must develop solid-state lithium batteries in 2013, liquid lithium-ion batteries were still at the peak of their development. This forward-looking judgment has allowed the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to build deep patent barriers in the basic research of solid-state batteries. As the only industrialization platform, Weilan has inherited the technology assets accumulated over the past 30 years.
Nan Cewen's Tsinghua team also has profound accumulation in the field of materials science. Qingtao's technical reserves in core materials such as solid electrolyte powder and composite separators are no less than any of its competitors. The fact that it has entered CATL's supply chain is proof of its strong technical strength, considering that CATL has extremely strict screening standards for suppliers.
However, the academic background of the two teams will eventually be tested by their industrialization capabilities.
Weilan has built 8 major production bases across China, with a total planned capacity of over 100 GWh. Qingtao, by contrast, follows the route of "deeply tapping one core client" through its close partnership with SAIC. Which development model is more effective depends on the market landscape when all-solid-state batteries achieve mass production.
If all-solid-state batteries are mass-produced as scheduled in 2027, Weilan's multi-sector layout will allow it to quickly capture incremental market demands from different application scenarios. If the mass production timeline is delayed, Qingtao's deep-binding model will be more resilient to market cycles, as SAIC's orders can support the company through the technology ramp-up period.
Industry institutions predict that global solid-state battery shipments are expected to reach 614 GWh to 808 GWh by 2030. But this prediction is based on the premise that all-solid-state batteries will complete technology finalization and realize small-scale mass production around 2027. If the mass production timeline is postponed, the entire industry's valuation logic will be completely re-evaluated.
Weilan chose the ChiNext Board of the A-share market, while Qingtao chose the Hong Kong stock market. The two markets have different valuation logics: the A-share market usually offers higher premiums for tech growth stocks than the Hong Kong stock market, while the Hong Kong stock market has more flexible listing thresholds for unprofitable enterprises. One of the considerations for Qingtao to choose the Hong Kong stock market may be the tightened listing review for unprofitable enterprises on the A-share market.
Yu Huigen, from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Nan Cewen, rooted in Tsinghua's laboratory, are leading two teams heading toward the same goal — the final mass production of all-solid-state batteries. The capital market will give the answer as to who will cross the finish line first.