Long Xin Technology, a leading domestic memory chip manufacturer, saw its market capitalization surpass the 4 trillion yuan mark today, a milestone ten years in the making.
When Long Xin was established a decade ago, China had virtually no presence in the DRAM memory chip landscape. Now, with its listing on the STAR Market, it has ascended to become the most valuable company on the A-share market. As the listing bell rang, early investors emerged as major winners, with Hefei's state-owned capital recording a historic return of nearly one trillion yuan on its investment.
However, one investor that has received less attention is Tencent. Having invested approximately 2 billion yuan over time, its stake is now worth an estimated 50 billion yuan on paper, based on today's 4 trillion yuan valuation.
Tencent's foray into Long Xin began in February 2022, when it, alongside Alibaba and Yunfeng Capital, appeared on the company's shareholder list. Tencent's holding platform, Beijing Fengyi, acquired 901 million shares, representing a 1.50% stake pre-IPO, which would be diluted to 1.35% after the offering.
At the time of Tencent's investment, Long Xin was still nearly three years away from mass-producing its first domestic DRAM chip and was deeply entrenched in a high-cost investment phase. In 2023, the first full year following Tencent's stake, Long Xin reported revenue of roughly 9 billion yuan but also a net loss of 19.2 billion yuan. Despite the lack of profits and no clear listing timeline, Tencent proceeded with its 2 billion yuan investment.
Four years later, with Long Xin's listing and a market value of approximately 4 trillion yuan as of August 17, Tencent's paper gain stands at 50 billion yuan. Alibaba was another participant in that 2022 round, investing around 1.5 billion yuan to acquire approximately 676 million shares. The company doubled down in June 2025, when Alibaba Cloud invested 6.1 billion yuan at 2.6302 yuan per share to secure 2.319 billion shares in the final pre-IPO round.
In total, the Alibaba group has invested approximately 7.6 billion yuan across two rounds, holding 2.995 billion shares. Post-IPO dilution, Alibaba Cloud and Alibaba Network hold 3.47% and 1.01% stakes respectively, a combined 4.48%. Based on Long Xin's 4 trillion yuan valuation, that stake is worth around 170 billion yuan, a staggering paper profit. To put that in perspective, Alibaba's net profit for fiscal 2026 was 102.1 billion yuan; the paper gains from Long Xin alone exceed more than a year's worth of the company's profits.
The shareholder register of Long Xin reads like a who's who of Chinese capital. During a fundraising round, the company was forced to conduct three reverse roadshows to filter through 220 interested investment institutions before shortlisting just over 10 for further due diligence, according to a partner at a well-known domestic industrial capital fund.
Following the IPO, the National Big Fund Phase II holds a 7.86% stake, Anhui Provincial Investment holds 7.12%, and China Structural Adjustment Fund holds 1.01%. At the 49 yuan per share price, the combined market value of these three holdings exceeds 520 billion yuan. Hefei's state-owned capital has been deeply involved in Long Xin's development since its inception, from project landing and factory construction to successive capital increases, providing the foundational support that made the trillion-yuan market cap story possible.
Among industrial investors, GigaDevice stands out as a significant holder. Led by the same chairman, Zhu Yiming, GigaDevice has deep ties with Long Xin. It invested 300 million yuan via convertible bonds in 2020, added 500 million yuan in 2021, and contributed 1.5 billion yuan in 2024, totaling approximately 2.3 billion yuan in principal. Based on the 49 yuan per share closing price on its first trading day (July 27, 2026), that stake is valued at roughly 53 billion yuan.
In 2021, Midea invested about 1 billion yuan. Post-IPO, Midea's 0.67% stake corresponds to a market value of around 22 billion yuan. Banking and insurance capital are also heavily represented, alongside a broad array of RMB funds including Big Fund Phase II, CICC Capital, COFCO Capital, Legend Capital, and many others.
Yet, the most poignant story in this saga belongs to Country Garden. Its venture capital arm invested about 900 million yuan in 2021. However, at the end of 2024, its subsidiary Hui Bi No.5 transferred 901 million shares to Hefei Jianchang for 2 billion yuan. Those same shares, valued at 49 yuan each on the first trading day, would have been worth approximately 44 billion yuan.
Some entered the city in the cold night; others left before dawn. Country Garden departed with 2 billion yuan to address its immediate financial distress. The decline of the real estate cycle and the rise of the semiconductor cycle intersected at precisely that moment. Such is the nature of timing and fate.
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