China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Finance launched a national venture capital guidance fund on 26 December 2025. Yicai Global reported that it holds 100 billion yuan of central government capital and aims to reach 1 trillion yuan by drawing in other investors. Since then, Guangdong province has launched a 100 billion yuan fund, and the NDRC and the State Council have issued rules on what government-backed funds may invest in and who may set them up.

The national fund

According to the NDRC’s press conference transcript, the fund has three layers: a fund company with a 20-year term, regional funds, and sub-funds. The first three regional funds cover the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The transcript sets these rules:

  • Regional funds put at least 80 percent of their investment into sub-funds.
  • A regional fund may not be the largest investor in any sub-fund.
  • Sub-funds must invest at least 70 percent of their size in seed-stage and start-up companies.
  • Average sub-fund size will not exceed 1 billion yuan.

At the launch, the regional funds signed investment intents with 49 sub-funds and 27 direct projects, in fields including integrated circuits, quantum technology, biomedicine, brain-computer interfaces and aerospace, China Daily reported. Huo Fupeng, chairman of the fund company, said the three regional funds were expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in total, and that the fund aims to set up more than 600 sub-funds, according to China Daily.

Guangdong’s fund

On 25 May 2026, Guangdong launched its Strategic Emerging Industries Investment Guidance Fund, Xinhua reported. Its planned total is 100 billion yuan, with 50 billion yuan registered for the first phase. Xinhua said it is the province’s first government investment fund set up as a company with no fixed end date, and listed three rules for judging it: the government does not intervene in individual investments, profit or loss in a single year or project is not the main test, and preserving the value of state capital is not the only measure.

How large the sector is

By the end of 2024, China had set up 2,178 government guidance funds with a combined target size of about 12.84 trillion yuan and subscribed capital of about 7.70 trillion yuan, according to Zero2IPO Research data reported by Xinhua Finance in February 2025. Excluding public-private partnership funds, 2,023 industry and venture funds had targets of 10.39 trillion yuan and 6.44 trillion yuan subscribed. A July 2025 Yicai Global article cited the same Zero2IPO data, putting the count at nearly 2,180 funds.

Research firm ChinaVenture counted 3.09 trillion yuan raised by new venture capital and private equity funds in 2025, up 26 percent, according to a Tiger Brokers news report, which said state-owned platforms were the largest investor group by amount committed. For China’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector, Rhodium Group said on 17 September 2026 that direct investment by government guidance funds and government funding platforms was 25 percent of announced equity investment in 2026 through 21 August, against 30 percent in 2024 and 2025.

The rules

On 12 January 2026, the NDRC and three other departments issued trial working measures on where government investment funds should invest, Xinhua reported via the central government website. The measures bar these funds from:

  • adding to hidden local government debt through deals that look like equity but work like debt;
  • buying publicly traded shares, except mergers, private placements and strategic placements written into a fund’s plan;
  • trading futures or other derivatives, giving guarantees, or making investments with unlimited liability.

Existing funds that do not meet the rules are to adjust and exit when their terms end. Drafts had been published in July 2025.

On 5 June 2026, the State Council General Office issued a guideline on private investment funds, The Paper reported. It strictly limits new government investment funds: county and district governments should in principle not set up new ones, and those that do need approval from the level above. Provinces that already have a fund of the same type should in principle not add another. The Paper cited China Securities Regulatory Commission data putting the private fund industry at 23 trillion yuan.

Caixin reported that in June 2026 no private equity or venture capital fund manager completed registration with the Asset Management Association of China, the first such month since registration began 12 years earlier.

Sources and notes

Read in full: gov.cn/Xinhua on the launch; Yicai Global (100 billion and 1 trillion yuan figures); China Daily (27 December 2025); Xinhua on Guangdong (25 May 2026); Xinhua Finance on Zero2IPO data; Yicai Global on the July 2025 drafts; gov.cn and gov.cn English on the January 2026 measures; and Tiger Brokers on ChinaVenture data. Read in part: the NDRC press conference transcript (26 December 2025; sections on fund structure and sub-fund rules); The Paper on the June 2026 guideline (sections on government funds and industry size); Rhodium Group (equity investment section); and Caixin on the guideline and Caixin’s 8 September analysis (paywalled; opening paragraphs only). Caixin’s web address for the guideline story refers to 34 trillion, but its text and The Paper both give the private fund industry as 23 trillion yuan ($3.4 trillion). Global Trade Alert also logs the Guangdong launch at 100 billion yuan. The South China Morning Post article on state cash in venture capital, and the Gavekal Dragonomics research it reportedly cites on 2025 fundraising coming mostly from government sources, could not be opened (the SCMP returned an access error); Lens has not used their figures. The State Council guideline’s full text and the NDRC trial measures were read only through official news summaries. Thumbnail photo: “Huangpu River 2018-08-26 170921” by David290 via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped. An aerial view of Shanghai's Lujiazui financial district beside the Huangpu River, with the Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center. Stand-in photo; it does not show the events or organisations described.

Image: Lens chart built from the figures above. Thumbnail: David290 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).