🔥36氪•Freshcollected in 8m
2026 China Equity Investment Industry Roster Released
💡Understand the shifting capital trends in China's AI market to better align your fundraising and product strategy.
⚡ 30-Second TL;DR
What Changed
AI is no longer a standalone track but a fundamental layer across all industries.
Why It Matters
The shift toward hard tech and AI infrastructure signals a long-term capital preference for tangible, technology-driven business models over pure software plays.
What To Do Next
Analyze the top-ranked AI and hard tech firms in the roster to identify potential partnership or funding opportunities for your startup.
Who should care:Founders & Product Leaders
Key Points
- •AI is no longer a standalone track but a fundamental layer across all industries.
- •Hard tech investment in VC portfolios has grown from 38% to 62% over five years.
- •Embodied AI alone attracted over 65.6 billion RMB in funding in 2025.
- •State-owned capital and industrial capital have replaced USD funds as primary market drivers.
🧠 Deep Insight
AI-generated analysis for this event.
🔑 Enhanced Key Takeaways
- •The 2026 Waves roster indicates a significant pivot toward 'New Quality Productive Forces,' a policy-driven investment framework prioritizing high-tech self-reliance.
- •Data shows a 40% decline in early-stage USD-denominated venture capital activity in China compared to 2023, signaling a structural exit of traditional foreign limited partners.
- •Investment in the 'Low-Altitude Economy' (eVTOLs and drone logistics) emerged as the second-largest sector for industrial capital allocation in the first half of 2026.
- •The shift toward hard tech is heavily concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions, which now account for over 70% of total domestic VC deployment.
- •Exit channels have shifted from IPOs on foreign exchanges to M&A activity and secondary market buyouts by state-backed industrial guidance funds.
🔮 Future ImplicationsAI analysis grounded in cited sources
Domestic VC firms will increasingly adopt 'CVC-style' (Corporate Venture Capital) operational models.
The dominance of state-owned and industrial capital necessitates that investment firms provide strategic supply chain integration rather than just financial returns.
The valuation gap between AI software startups and hardware-integrated AI companies will widen significantly.
Market sentiment is penalizing pure-play software models in favor of companies that demonstrate tangible integration with manufacturing and physical infrastructure.
⏳ Timeline
2023-03
Government restructuring of the Ministry of Science and Technology to centralize control over strategic technology investments.
2024-01
Initial surge in 'New Quality Productive Forces' policy discourse, setting the stage for the 2025-2026 investment pivot.
2025-06
Peak funding period for Embodied AI startups, establishing the sector as a primary pillar for industrial capital.
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Original source: 36氪 ↗