National Fund Invests in Shanghai's Quantum Computing Unicorn

Deep News11:14

A Chinese quantum computing company has received its first direct investment from the National Venture Capital Guidance Fund. On April 27, Shanghai-based quantum computing unicorn Turing Quantum announced the completion of a new funding round raising hundreds of millions of yuan. The capital will be used to advance the large-scale application of quantum computing in various industries and accelerate the nationwide deployment of integrated quantum-classical computing centers.

This development signifies that Turing Quantum has completed two consecutive funding rounds since 2026, raising a combined total of nearly 1 billion yuan and achieving a current valuation exceeding 7 billion yuan.

The latest funding round was jointly led by the Yangtze River Delta Fund of the National Venture Capital Guidance Fund and Pudong New Area's state-owned capital system. New investors include prominent institutions such as Fortune Capital, the industrial financial investment platform of Saic Motor Corporation Limited, and its subsidiary Shangqi Capital. Existing shareholders, including CDH Winvest and Bi'an Times, continued to increase their investments.

Against the backdrop of implementing the "15th Five-Year Plan" and strategically planning future industries, the Yangtze River Delta Fund's investment in Turing Quantum marks the fund's first direct investment in the quantum sector since its establishment in December 2025. This move clearly signals recognition of Turing Quantum's fully self-developed technology, engineering capabilities, strategic value, and industrial feasibility. The company has become a key strategic piece in the national fund's future-oriented portfolio.

More importantly, the coordinated effort between the Pudong state-owned capital system and the national guidance fund demonstrates systematic support for Turing Quantum, spanning from national strategy to local execution, and from capital to industrial ecosystem.

"Our revenue was 50,000 yuan in 2022, and it surpassed 10 million yuan by 2023," revealed Jin Xianmin, founder and CEO of Turing Quantum, in an exclusive interview. He further disclosed that by 2025, the company's order value had exceeded 100 million yuan, with revenue reaching tens of millions of yuan, representing a compound annual growth rate of 200%.

Turing Quantum's prominence reflects the recent surge of interest in the quantum computing sector. A recent industry report highlighted that "almost every quantum computing company has either just closed a funding round or is in the process of doing so." This has led to a cluster of quantum computing companies securing investments within a short period. Data indicates there are currently over 200 quantum technology companies in China, with several dozen focused specifically on quantum computing. Notably, 10 quantum computing companies received investment in March 2026 alone.

Among the funded companies, Turing Quantum stands out as a leading player. The company's origins are rooted in Jin Xianmin's strong research ideals and patriotic sentiment. In 2002, Jin pursued graduate studies at the University of Science and Technology of China, later joining Academician Pan Jianwei's team to research quantum computing, where he earned his doctorate.

By 2010, Jin was conducting postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford's Department of Physics, joining one of the world's earliest teams researching photonic quantum chips. In 2012, he was awarded the EU's "Marie Curie Fellow" and Oxford's "Wolfson College Scholar," receiving funding to conduct independent research on optical storage and quantum networks at Oxford.

Recognizing the future trajectory of quantum computing, Jin understood that research成果 needed to move beyond academia. He registered his first company, Q-WindowX, at Oxford, becoming one of the earliest proponents of quantum computing industrialization. "The idea at the time was that quantum computing might be ready for industrialization," he recalled.

In 2014, Jin accepted an invitation to return to China, becoming a tenured professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and establishing the Integrated Quantum Information Technology Research Center to focus on photonic quantum chip design, fabrication, and system integration.

Six years later, when PsiQuantum, founded by Jin's former Oxford competitor, received massive funding, Jin realized international competition had shifted from academic papers to engineering and industrialization. This prompted his decision in 2020 to actively participate in and promote the industrialization of quantum computing in China.

At that time, having published dozens of top-tier papers, Jin could have pursued a traditional academic path. However, he recognized that the high barrier of quantum technology meant scientists were best positioned to lead. "The country needs technological self-reliance, and quantum is an ideal field for 'overtaking on a curve.' Missing this era would be a lifelong regret," Jin stated.

Consequently, Jin founded Turing Quantum in Shanghai in February 2021, establishing China's first company focused on integrated photonic chips and programmable photonic quantum computers. He assembled the country's only team possessing integrated capabilities in "chip fabrication + quantum computing + artificial intelligence + photonic computing."

"Photonic quantum computing has no obvious weaknesses and offers the clearest path to engineering," Jin stated directly, highlighting advantages such as room-temperature operation, low energy consumption, high stability, and high compatibility with mature semiconductor processes. He described it as the only current technical system meeting the requirements of being programmable, integrable, and scalable.

Leveraging Shanghai Jiao Tong University's profound research foundation, Turing Quantum focuses on core technological breakthroughs in photonic quantum integrated chips and underlying algorithms. The company participated in building China's first photonic chip pilot line, achieving breakthroughs in wafer-scale thin-film lithium niobate integration processes and novel photonic-electronic co-packaging architectures, successfully developing large-scale, high-speed, programmable photonic quantum computing chips.

By rapidly transitioning laboratory technology to engineerable products, the company launched its first commercial research-grade specialized photonic quantum computer, TuringQ Gen1, and the new-generation large-scale hybrid integrated photonic quantum computer, TuringQ Gen2.

Building on this, Turing Quantum is deploying integrated quantum-classical computing, combining quantum computing with classical supercomputing centers to tackle large-scale combinatorial optimization problems inefficient for traditional computing power. This represents a critical step from "specialized demonstration" to "industrial-grade usability," serving as the main battlefield for Turing Quantum's next phase of large-scale application and the core of its national quantum computing center deployment.

After establishing full-stack capabilities from chips to systems and hardware to industry solutions, the company adopted a strategy of creating interim products, developing a series of offerings across three core sectors: quantum computing, quantum security, and optical connectivity. These have been successfully implemented in fields including fintech, biopharma, energy transportation, and government security.

Currently, Turing Quantum has delivered multiple photonic quantum computer units and established collaborations with China Mobile, State Grid, Shaanxi Big Data Group, Haiguang, Moore Threads, and Zhongshan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, achieving leapfrog growth in performance.

"Our revenue was 50,000 yuan in 2022, and it surpassed 10 million yuan by 2023," Jin Xianmin revealed. By 2025, Turing Quantum's order value had exceeded 100 million yuan, with revenue reaching tens of millions of yuan and a compound annual growth rate of 200%.

After several years of development, Turing Quantum has grown into a star unicorn in Shanghai. More importantly, located in Pudong New Area, which is focusing on quantum technology to build a global industrial cluster, the company's technological R&D and industrialization progress resonate with Shanghai's advantageous industries, granting it significant development potential.

To date, Turing Quantum has completed 8 funding rounds, raising over 1 billion yuan in total. Just three months after its founding, the company secured what was then the largest angel round in China's quantum computing field, raising nearly 100 million yuan from investors including Legend Star, Zhongke Shenguang, Qianhai Fund, Yuanlai Capital, and Xiaomiao Fund.

Although many believed quantum computing was far from commercial application at the time, lead investor Legend Star prioritized the core team's comprehensive strength. Judging Jin Xianmin to be a highly capable scientist and an passionate entrepreneur with strong business acumen, they decisively invested 25 million yuan.

Soon after, to translate theoretical advantages into mass-producible physical entities, Turing Quantum collaborated with the Wuxi Photonic Chip Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University to build China's first photonic chip pilot line. In November 2021, it completed a Series Pre-A round raising hundreds of millions of yuan from investors including Legend Capital, Zhongxin Juyuan, Sangfor Technologies, and Jiao Da Han Yuan.

By March 2022, the company announced a Pre-A+ round from investors including Yuanhe Origin, Wuxi Binhu State-owned Capital Investment, Legend Capital, and Amber Capital. By then, it had formed a complete market-oriented product system and released products like the fully integrated commercial research-grade specialized photonic quantum computer.

That same year, besides securing hundreds of millions from investors like China Internet Investment Fund, Huakong Capital, Orient Securities Innovation, and Legend Capital, the company completed an intellectual property transfer with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The university contributed patents as equity, making Turing Quantum an independent company entering a new development stage.

Jin Xianmin, embodying both scientist and entrepreneur, believes that while research drives technological progress, industrialization requires a corporate structure. "The operational mechanisms and evaluation criteria are different. A company can better iterate products to meet market demands," he explained.

The investment from China Internet Investment Fund indicated national-level fund approval. In their view, photonic quantum computing is one of the most promising mainstream quantum computing routes. "Turing Quantum's integrated photonic quantum technology aligns with the development trend of the photonic route and is expected to gradually transition to general-purpose quantum computing, possessing a strong moat."

Also optimistic about the company, Shengshi Investment led a 100-million-yuan strategic funding round for Turing Quantum in May 2025, boosting its valuation to 3 billion yuan. Within less than half a year, Turing Quantum completed another strategic round with investments from national-level capital, CDH Winvest, Guoke Capital, and Haitong Kaiyuan.

At that time, the "15th Five-Year Plan" recommendations listed quantum technology, including quantum computing, as the top priority for future industry layout, attracting numerous investors. As a leading quantum computing company, Turing Quantum quickly became a target for追捧 from many investment institutions, including national funds.

The originality of underlying technology, the speed of engineering implementation, and alignment with national strategic needs largely determine a quantum computing company's success. Turing Quantum's moat lies at the intersection of these three aspects: over 20 years of photonic quantum technology accumulation, pioneering the completion of a full-stack self-developed system encompassing chips, algorithms, whole machines, and clusters in China, and proactively undertaking the "15th Five-Year Plan" strategic task of quantum computing practical application.

In December 2025, the National Venture Capital Guidance Fund launched, establishing three regional funds—each with a scale exceeding 50 billion yuan—for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Turing Quantum became one of the first batch of signed projects for the Yangtze River Delta Venture Capital Guidance Fund managed by SDIC Unity.

After securing hundreds of millions from first-tier market-oriented state-owned capital, Sichuan Provincial Industrial振兴Group, Toukong Donghai, Fosun Capital, SenseTime, and others, Turing Quantum secured another round of funding amounting to hundreds of millions of yuan in April 2026, pushing its valuation above 7 billion yuan.

This latest round was jointly led by the Yangtze River Delta Fund of the National Venture Capital Guidance Fund and Pudong New Area's state-owned capital system. New investors included prominent institutions like Fortune Capital, Saic Motor Corporation Limited's industrial financial investment platform, and its subsidiary Shangqi Capital. Existing shareholders CDH Winvest and Bi'an Times continued to increase their stakes.

Turing Quantum gained recognition from the national fund and Shanghai's state-owned capital not only due to its solid technology and capability for systemic industrial restructuring but also because it has built a full-stack independent technological system spanning from underlying chips and core hardware to whole-machine systems and software ecosystems, creating barriers throughout the industrial chain.

With the "15th Five-Year Plan" explicitly proposing the strategic layout of future industries like quantum technology, Jin Xianmin anticipates quantum computing will enter a period of explosive growth within the next five to ten years. He predicts quantum computing will gradually transition from specialized calculations in specific fields to broader general-purpose computing, significantly expanding its application scenarios.

Based on analysis of technological trends and market demand, this company, aspiring to become the "Intel of the Quantum Era," is also determined to grow into an enterprise with a market capitalization of trillions of yuan.

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