In 2025, the investment performance of insurance companies showed significant divergence. Among listed insurers, New China Life Insurance (NCI) led with a total investment return rate of 6.6%, followed by China Life Insurance (CHINA LIFE) at 6.09%. Among non-listed insurers, Junlong Life Insurance topped the list with a 10.85% return, while Xiaokang Life Insurance ranked second with 8.17%. Concurrently, some companies reported returns below 3%, with a few even incurring losses.
By the end of 2025, the combined equity investment scale of the five major listed insurers—China Life Insurance (CHINA LIFE), Ping An Insurance (PING AN), China Pacific Insurance (CPIC), New China Life Insurance (NCI), and The People's Insurance Company (Group) of China (PICC GROUP)—reached 2.5 trillion yuan, an increase of over 1 trillion yuan from the previous year, representing a growth of approximately 67%. Specifically, China Life's public market equity investments exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, while New China Life's investments related to technology finance reached 140 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27%. The periodic recovery of the equity market, particularly the strong performance of technology stocks, served as the core engine driving higher investment returns.
High returns were underpinned by significant allocations to technology sectors. The performance leaders shared a common strategy: substantially increasing their allocation to equity assets, especially stocks and equity investments in technology. New China Life's technology finance-related investment balance stood at 140 billion yuan, China Life's public market equity investment scale surpassed 1.2 trillion yuan, and Junlong Life established an investment system integrating primary market private equity logic into secondary markets, focusing on semiconductors and robotics.
Specifically, these leading insurers concentrated their capital in several key areas. In artificial intelligence and semiconductors, China Life invested 2 billion yuan to establish a dedicated semiconductor fund, while China Re Asset Management held semiconductor positions accounting for nearly 40% of its technology portfolio. China Life Capital made early-stage investments in general AI company MiniMax and secured strategic placements in the IPOs of Moore Thread and Mu Xi, with some projects achieving floating gains of up to 70 times. In the robotics sector, insurance capital predominantly adopted indirect investment models. For example, 27 insurance institutions indirectly participated in Yushu Technology through stakes in private equity funds, with insurers like China Post Life, Pacific Life, and China Life injecting capital through channels such as the National SME Development Fund and the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Phase II Fund. Additionally, sectors highly synergistic with the core insurance business, such as healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, and new energy, also attracted significant interest. Rui Zhong Life increased its holdings in Dongcheng Pharmaceutical and Tong Ren Tang; China Life maintained an eight-year investment in Jingtai Technology; and China Life secured a 959 million yuan strategic placement during Huadian New Energy's IPO. New China Life's green finance investments reached 75.1 billion yuan, while PICC Group's technology finance investment scale grew by 30%.
Thus, the divergence in insurance companies' investment returns in 2025 essentially reflected a divergence in asset allocation strategies. Insurers that dared to pre-position and heavily invest in technology equity successfully captured the window of opportunity presented by the equity market recovery, using the elasticity of tech stocks to hedge against the pressure of declining fixed-income yields. In contrast, companies with lagging returns largely remained anchored in traditional fixed-income assets, passively bearing pressure in a low-interest-rate environment. The secret of the leaders is straightforward: those who embraced technology captured the high ground of returns.
As the scale of insurance capital's technology investments expanded, its relationship with private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) institutions underwent a profound transformation—evolving from a simple limited partner (LP) capital provider to a complex landscape of "cooperation + partial competition + functional synergy."
Most insurance companies lack early-stage project screening capabilities and leverage professional institutions by becoming LPs in PE/VC funds. In 2025, over 20 insurance companies invested in PE funds, with several 10-billion-yuan funds being established intensively. PICC Group established the industry's first 10-billion-yuan "Modern Industrial Fund," and China Pacific Insurance initiated a strategic emerging industry M&A private equity fund with a target scale of 30 billion yuan. When selecting general partners (GPs), insurance capital increasingly prefers to collaborate with government or state-owned capital-led funds, such as the National SME Development Fund and the China Internet Investment Fund.
Leading insurers have begun extending into GP roles. China Life explicitly stated its intention to actively manage technology portfolios through M&A funds, PE funds, and secondary funds (S funds). Its subsidiary, China Life Investment Management, oversees assets exceeding one trillion yuan and has started raising external capital. New China Asset Management indicated a shift from being a "financial investor" to a "strategic investor." CEO Chen Xi of Zemu Jia commented, "This represents a fundamental shift from passively adapting to liabilities to actively creating value." However, this competition is mainly concentrated in growth-stage and mature-stage projects, with early-stage projects still dominated by cooperation.
Insurance capital also possesses unique advantages that PE/VC cannot replicate—functional synergy. In 2025, Ping An Insurance underwrote 3.26 million technology insurance policies, providing risk coverage amounting to 9.29 trillion yuan. PICC Group's technology insurance coverage reached 51 trillion yuan, covering over 360,000 enterprises. Chen Yijiang, General Manager of New China Asset Management, stated, "Insurance capital is evolving from a mere capital provider to a resource integrator and strategic enabler." This dual model of "capital supply + risk underwriting" positions insurance capital in an irreplaceable role within the technology finance ecosystem.
The five major listed insurers exhibit distinct characteristics in their technology investments. China Life advocates "going long on China," focusing its 1.2 trillion yuan in equity investments on AI/semiconductors, healthcare, and green energy. Ping An Insurance leverages its comprehensive financial advantages, serving the real economy with nearly 10 trillion yuan, covering cutting-edge fields like GPUs, robotics, and brain-computer interfaces. New China Life's technology finance investments reached 140 billion yuan (up 27% year-on-year) and established specialized vehicles like the Zhijixin Fund. PICC Group employs a dual-drive strategy with its 10-billion-yuan "Modern Industrial Fund" and 51 trillion yuan in technology insurance coverage. China Pacific Insurance focuses on Shanghai's state-owned assets, initiating a strategic emerging industry M&A private equity fund with a target scale of 30 billion yuan.
Despite notable achievements, insurance capital must overcome two major hurdles to become true "patient capital." The first is risk mismatch: insurance capital demands extremely high safety and stability, whereas technological innovation is inherently high-risk. Currently, most insurers still prefer investing in growth-stage and mature-stage projects, with a relatively low proportion allocated to early-stage investments. Establishing investment decision-making and risk control mechanisms suitable for technology enterprises is a primary challenge. The second is the capability gap: compared to top-tier PE/VC firms, insurance asset management institutions still lag in investment research capabilities and early-stage project screening. Traditional valuation models are difficult to adapt to technology firms, and performance evaluation and error tolerance mechanisms are often mismatched with long-cycle characteristics. Cultivating professional talent and establishing scientific evaluation systems are crucial.
Industry insiders anticipate that over the next 3-5 years, the scale of insurance capital's technology investments will continue to grow rapidly. The trend of leading insurers evolving into GPs will become more pronounced, and the synergistic model of "investment + insurance" will see broader application.
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