As all-solid-state batteries are widely regarded as a key direction for next-generation battery technology, China's wealthiest individual, Zhong Shanshan, has quietly entered the arena.
In May 2026, Zhong Shanshan, founder of NONGFU SPRING, led an investment through a private equity fund established by his controlled entity, Yangshengtang Co., Ltd., in a solid-state electrolyte company that had been operating for just over a year—Zhejiang Zhibang Lithium Battery New Materials Co., Ltd. (referred to as Zhibang Lithium).
This indirect investment, channeled through the fund, propels the "nature's porter" into the upstream segment of the new energy materials industry and highlights the strong appeal of the solid-state battery sector to capital from outside the traditional industry circle.
In the secondary market, according to Wind data, as of May 26, 2026, the solid-state battery sector had accumulated a year-to-date increase of over 24%, with multiple leading stocks experiencing significant price surges. Notably, Han's Laser and Defu Technology saw year-to-date gains exceeding 200%.
The Investment Code of the Richest Man's Cross-Border Move
Public information reveals that on May 8, 2026, Zhibang Lithium completed its Series A financing. The lead investor, Kunshan Gewu Zhizhi Phase I Venture Capital Fund, holds approximately 10% of the shares. Upon tracing the equity structure, the core contributor to this fund is Yangshengtang Co., Ltd., which committed about 500 million yuan, accounting for roughly 81% of the fund. The actual controller of Yangshengtang is Zhong Shanshan. This indicates that Zhong Shanshan has indirectly invested in Zhibang Lithium through the fund, formally entering the solid-state battery materials track. Additionally, in this round of financing, other participants included Quzhou Zhina, backed by local state-owned assets in Quzhou, and Xianfeng Changqing, among others. Quzhou's state-owned assets hold about 15% of Zhibang Lithium, making it the second-largest shareholder after the founding team.
Established in March 2024 and headquartered in Quzhou, Zhejiang, Zhibang Lithium is a supplier focused on core materials for solid-state batteries. However, as the industrialization process of solid-state batteries is still in its early stages, Zhibang Lithium's technical team has adopted a multi-path strategy, simultaneously developing oxide, polymer, and sulfide technical routes. According to public information, the company's technical lead, Xu Xiaoxiong, previously served as a core technical personnel at Ganfeng Lithium and possesses nearly two decades of experience in the lithium battery materials field. In April of this year, the company publicly disclosed a patent for a high-performance PVDF-based solid-state electrolyte.
In March of this year, local government media in Quzhou reported that Zhibang Lithium's project for an annual production capacity of 11,000 tons of solid-state battery electrolyte is nearing completion and will supply key materials to automakers such as Geely and BYD.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time Zhong Shanshan has extended his capital reach into unfamiliar sectors. Previously, Yangshengtang's capital has invested in Jinbo Biological in the recombinant collagen field, Rongda Photosensitive in the electronic chemicals/photoresist field, and has also established upstream raw material bases in the agricultural sector, such as ancient tea trees in Yunnan and forest fruits in Xinjiang. These investments share a common characteristic: avoiding the highly competitive downstream end markets and instead securing upstream links in the industrial chain that possess technological barriers or resource scarcity.
Zhong Shanshan's current investment in solid-state battery materials continues his consistent "selling shovels" strategy. Within the solid-state battery industry chain, the battery cell manufacturing segment is already dominated by giants like CATL and BYD, with competition intensifying. In contrast, solid-state electrolytes, as a core component of battery cells, have not yet fully solidified their technical routes, representing a high-value-added, high-barrier upstream segment. By holding a small stake through an investment fund, strategic flexibility is maintained while avoiding excessive consumption of cash flow from the main business. Partnering with Quzhou's state-owned assets also helps reduce local coordination costs during the industrialization process to some extent.
The Cold and Heat in the Wave of Cross-Border Investments in New Battery Technologies
Cases of cross-border investments in the new energy industry have become increasingly common in recent years.
Lei Jun, through Shunwei Capital, Xiaomi Group, and the Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund, has invested in companies such as SVOLT, Weilan New Energy, and KuaiBu New Energy around the Xiaomi automotive ecosystem chain. His investment areas cover the entire industry chain, including power batteries, semi-solid/solid-state batteries, energy storage, and charging infrastructure. Among these, Weilan New Energy, as a representative enterprise in the mass production of semi-solid-state batteries in China, has received continued investment from the "Xiaomi ecosystem."
Shanghai Xiba is a representative example of a traditional enterprise crossing into new material technologies. This water treatment service provider has collaborated with the team of Academician Zhao Dongyuan since 2021, entering the solid-state electrolyte field by purchasing patents from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and establishing joint ventures. In May 2025, Shanghai Xiba again spent 25 million yuan to acquire two core patents for solid-state batteries. The high-specific-energy soft-pack solid-state battery it developed has achieved an energy density exceeding 320Wh/kg and has entered small-scale production, theoretically applicable to high-end scenarios such as eVTOLs.
Lessons from failed cross-border attempts are equally profound.
In 2016, after Gree's acquisition of Yinlong was rejected by shareholders, Dong Mingzhu personally invested 1 billion yuan, jointly with star entrepreneurs like Wang Jianlin and Liu Qiangdong, to increase capital by 3 billion yuan for a stake in the company. Subsequently, Gree obtained controlling rights through a judicial auction for 1.828 billion yuan. However, the new technology route Yinlong bet on, lithium titanate batteries, suffered a comprehensive defeat in the mainstream power and energy storage battery markets due to excessively low energy density. As of June 2024, Gree Titanium had liabilities of 24.786 billion yuan and a net loss of 1.905 billion yuan, becoming a heavy burden within the Gree system.
The solid-state battery segment, due to its generational differences from liquid lithium batteries in technical characteristics, theoretically offers breakthrough potential in dimensions such as energy density, safety, and cycle life. These technical features position it as an important direction for next-generation power batteries, particularly in high-end electric vehicles, low-altitude aircraft, and other scenarios with extremely high safety and range requirements, where it is highly anticipated. Consequently, the influx of cross-border entrants has been especially notable over the past two years.
According to statistics from the China Industrial Association of Power Sources, in the first quarter of 2025 alone, domestic investments in solid-state and semi-solid-state battery projects amounted to approximately 18.8 billion yuan, involving a capacity of 48.3GWh. Investments in supporting materials such as solid-state electrolytes and dry-process electrodes have begun to emerge, with listed companies like Shanghai Xiba, Jiemei Technology, Sanfu Xinke, and Huangting International making respective moves.
Among these, Huangting International, a real estate developer, increased its investment in August 2025 in a solid-state battery company that had been operating for just over a year and possessed almost no authorized patents for solid-state batteries, leading to external perceptions of "riding the hype." Meanwhile, Jinlongyu announced a 1.2 billion yuan investment in heavy asset factory construction against the backdrop of declining revenue and net profit in its main business. Its initial technical cooperation team has withdrawn, and the project faces significant uncertainty.
Currently, solid-state batteries have been listed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as a key research direction, and multiple institutions predict that global demand will approach 500GWh by 2030. However, on the technical front, the sulfide route faces issues such as easy oxidation and high costs, while oxide and polymer routes each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the mass production timeline for all-solid-state batteries remains a point of contention within the industry.
When capital enthusiasm surpasses technological maturity, some cross-border investments also face a gap between conceptual hype and industrial reality. Zhong Shanshan's entry into the solid-state battery materials sector is less a formal foray into the new energy track and more a typical example of using financial investment to secure an upstream position. At a time when the industrialization of solid-state batteries is not yet fully clear, a cautious approach—emphasizing light assets, focusing on technical teams, and partnering with local state-owned assets—may be more rational than directly building factories.
As Zhibang Lithium stated on its official account, as a new industry and field, solid-state electrolytes still have a long way to go. They carry expectations for high-safety, high-energy-density batteries but also face the growing pains of transitioning from "laboratory achievements" to "industrialized products." However, beyond these pains lies the new dawn of next-generation power battery technology.
"In the future, when solid-state electrolytes truly achieve large-scale commercial use, they will not only reshape the range and safety landscape of new energy vehicles but also bring disruptive changes to fields such as energy storage, consumer electronics, and aerospace," Zhibang Lithium believes.
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