Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. (002364.SZ), a leading domestic high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power supply company, announced a significant agreement on the evening of April 8. The company's controlling shareholder, Hangzhou Zhongheng Technology Investment Co., Ltd., signed a strategic investment and cooperation framework agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.,Ltd. (300750.SZ) (CATL), under which it will accept a 4.1 billion yuan capital increase from CATL, leading to corresponding changes in the company's ownership structure.
Stimulated by this powerful collaboration, Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. experienced two consecutive days of direct limit-up openings on April 9 and 10. By the midday break on April 10, its share price had reached 35.12 yuan per share, boosting its market capitalization to 19.7 billion yuan, demonstrating strong market approval for the partnership. Notably, Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. is a high-performing stock that has more than doubled in value for 2025, surging over 151.15% year-to-date, with its share price already rising more than 30% since the start of this year.
The investment involves a significant premium. The announcement detailed that CATL plans to subscribe to a newly increased registered capital of 14.4118 million yuan in Zhongheng Technology Investment for 4.1 billion yuan, using a combination of cash and equity. Specifically, CATL will contribute approximately 1.196 billion yuan worth of its 99.6970% stake in Times Tianyuan, with the remaining 2.904 billion yuan paid in cash. Upon completion of the capital increase, CATL will hold a 49% stake in Zhongheng Technology Investment, becoming a major strategic shareholder.
This transaction carries a notable premium. Based on the 4.1 billion yuan investment for a 49% stake, the overall valuation of Zhongheng Technology Investment is approximately 8.367 billion yuan. In contrast, the market value of the 35.56% stake in Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. held by Zhongheng Technology Investment was about 5.83 billion yuan at the market close on April 8. This implies that CATL's strategic investment involves a premium of approximately 43.5%.
The high premium reflects CATL's strong recognition of Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd.'s core technology and market position, as well as CATL's urgent need to address gaps in its own business portfolio. Times Tianyuan, established in 2018 and formerly known as Xianyang New Energy Company before rebranding in 2025, primarily operates in three business segments: lithium battery equipment manufacturing, integrated photovoltaic energy storage systems, and new energy vehicle charging and battery swap facilities. Currently, Times Tianyuan has recruitment activities in Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Zhuhai, seeking technical talent in areas such as SST (solid-state transformers) and energy storage PCS (power conversion systems).
Integrating Times Tianyuan into the Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. framework is essentially a key step for CATL to consolidate internal resources and accelerate its布局 in the power electronics field. Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd., heavily backed by CATL's investment, possesses substantial capabilities. It is the formulator of China's national standard for HVDC power supply technology and has maintained the leading domestic market share for years. According to its semi-annual report, its products are widely used in data centers of major internet companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu. It was the sole winner of the HVDC power supply system bid for Alibaba Group and has deep ties with leading domestic cloud providers and the three major telecommunications operators. Additionally, Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. is a core supplier for new energy charging and battery swap infrastructure and a key service provider for State Grid and China Southern Power Grid in new power systems.
The announcement indicated that future cooperation between the two parties will focus on areas such as green ICT infrastructure, transportation electrification, and new power systems, particularly computation-power synergy, which is an emerging core sector drawing significant market attention. Computation-power synergy refers to the deep integration of energy technology and information technology to achieve bidirectional optimal dispatch of computing power and electrical power. Predictions suggest that by 2030, electricity consumption by Chinese data centers will account for over 10% of total societal electricity usage. Ensuring stable computing power supply while achieving green, low-carbon development is a common industry challenge, and computation-power synergy is seen as a crucial solution.
By equipping data centers with energy storage systems, operators can leverage peak-valley electricity price differences for arbitrage and participate in auxiliary power market services, significantly reducing data center electricity costs. Furthermore, energy storage systems can provide backup power, enhancing the power supply reliability of data centers. CATL has keenly identified the market opportunity in computation-power synergy and has developed a product line for AI data center (AIDC) energy storage配对. Recently, CATL announced a full-scenario energy storage solution utilizing both sodium and lithium technologies,首次 showcasing its sodium-ion battery for energy storage. Its related energy storage products can cover large-scale storage applications from 2 to 8 hours, as well as AIDC energy storage scenarios. The company also claims it will achieve commercialization in the AIDC energy storage配对 field within the year.
It is evident that this cooperation with Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. is closely related to CATL's strategic focus on the computation-power synergy track. Historically, CATL's strengths in the energy and power sector have been concentrated on the DC side, while it has had notable weaknesses in AC-side power electronics technology, such as HVDC and PCS. Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd.恰好 possesses these core technologies and has渠道 resources tied to major clients. Their partnership is expected to rapidly integrate the entire chain and create synergies in customer bases, allowing them to seize first-mover advantage in the sector.
Simultaneously, the investment in Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. represents CATL's third major investment in the industrial chain within the past six months and its first large-scale foray into the downstream power electronics and energy solutions sector. Reviewing CATL's recent capital activities shows a previous investment focus predominantly on the upstream lithium battery产业链. In October 2025, CATL invested 2.635 billion yuan to acquire 108 million shares from the actual controllers of Tianhua New Energy (300390.SZ), increasing its stake to 12.95% and becoming the company's second-largest shareholder. Tianhua New Energy's Q1 performance预告 released on the evening of April 8 indicated an expected net profit attributable to shareholders of 900 million to 1.05 billion yuan, a staggering year-on-year increase of 27,517.53% to 32,120.45%.
In January 2026, CATL planned to invest approximately 3.175 billion yuan to subscribe to 230 million private placement shares in Fuling Precision Industry (300432.SZ). Upon completion, CATL would directly hold over 5% of Fuling Precision Industry, becoming a strategic investor. The two companies agreed to collaborate on the joint development of high-density lithium iron phosphate, solid-state batteries, sodium-ion batteries, and locked in procurement shares. In February 2026, CATL originally intended to participate further in the equity restructuring of the subsidiary Yongtai High-Tech by electrolyte supplier Yongtai Technology (002326.SZ), but the plan was later terminated due to failure to reach agreement on terms.
However, unlike the previous upstream investments aimed at "securing supply and controlling costs," this investment in Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric Co.,Ltd. marks an expansion of CATL's capital footprint downstream into the ecosystem. As CATL pursues a secondary listing in Hong Kong, its corporate strategy is gradually shifting from being a pure-play battery component manufacturer to becoming a provider of zero-carbon technology system solutions covering three main areas: zero-carbon transportation, zero-carbon power, and industrial new energy transformation. This strategic pivot is driving CATL to extend its capital reach vertically along the industrial chain while accelerating horizontal ecosystem construction.
This also signifies that CATL is progressively covering the entire lifecycle of energy production, storage, transmission, and consumption, and is building the雏形 of a "zero-carbon ecosystem" that connects the digital economy with the green economy.
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