A foreign-focused exhibition company has directed 150 million yuan into a large model unicorn.
On the evening of May 25th, Meorient Exhibition announced its plan to use its own funds, totaling 150 million yuan, to subscribe for shares in Shanghai Stepfun Star AI Technology Co., Ltd. Upon completion of the transaction, Meorient Exhibition will hold a minority equity stake in Stepfun Star. Following the announcement, on May 26th, Meorient Exhibition's stock price hit the 20% daily limit-up.
This investment has captured market attention not only because Stepfun Star carries labels like "AI Six Little Dragons" and "Large Model Unicorn," but also because the two companies were not originally on the same industry chain. Meorient Exhibition's main business involves the planning, organization, promotion, and operation services for overseas exhibitions, while Stepfun Star focuses on artificial intelligence directions such as foundational large models and multimodal large models. One is in exhibitions, the other in large models—their businesses are not closely related.
Meorient Exhibition also clearly delineated the boundaries in its announcement. The company noted that after this investment, its shareholding percentage in Stepfun Star will be extremely low, and it will not have a board seat or the right to appoint management personnel, thus unable to influence Stepfun Star's major decisions. Furthermore, the company currently has no business dealings with Stepfun Star and does not participate in its daily operations and management.
In other words, this resembles a financial minority investment more than an industrial merger or acquisition. The market, however, has priced it differently: the AI concept takes precedence, driving the stock price to a limit-up first.
Stepfun Star is indeed one of the assets most likely to ignite market sentiment in the current capital landscape. Public information shows that Stepfun Star was founded in April 2023. Its founder and CEO, Jiang Daxin, has a background at Microsoft. The company is dedicated to the research and development of foundational large model technology and is expanding into multimodal large model directions. Since the beginning of this year, news regarding Stepfun Star's financing, capitalization, and potential Hong Kong IPO has continued to circulate, with both industrial capital and market funds maintaining high interest in such large model companies.
Therefore, the timing of Meorient Exhibition's investment appears particularly sensitive.
From Meorient Exhibition's own perspective, the company's main operations remain concentrated in offline overseas exhibitions. Its 2025 annual report shows the company achieved operating revenue of approximately 785 million yuan. This includes about 716 million yuan from self-organized exhibitions, approximately 61.7 million yuan from agency exhibitions, and around 6.85 million yuan from digital exhibitions and other sources. This revenue structure indicates that Meorient Exhibition's core business is still exhibition services, with digital-related revenue constituting a relatively low proportion.
This raises a core question worth exploring regarding this investment: Is Meorient Exhibition investing in Stepfun Star for industrial synergy, or to share in the subsequent capitalization gains of the AI unicorn?
Meorient Exhibition itself is also in a phase with relatively frequent capital activities. The 2025 annual report indicated the company had reviewed preparatory matters related to an overseas share issuance and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In other words, while Meorient Exhibition is preparing for its own H-share listing, it is also taking a minority stake in a highly popular AI unicorn, making its capital market narrative naturally more prone to amplification.
Meorient Exhibition is not a typical family business but resembles more of a entrepreneurial collective formed by long-time colleagues in the exhibition industry. Key figures include Chairman Pan Jianjun, Director and General Manager Fang Huansheng, and Board Secretary and CFO Yao Zongxian, among others. The annual report shows Fang Huansheng holds 23.03% of shares, Pan Jianjun holds 22.91%, and Yao Zongxian holds 9.28%. Yao Zongxian concurrently holds several key positions, including Board Secretary, CFO, and Company Secretary, making him a notable figure in the company's governance and capital operations.
Additionally, the company has previously experienced situations where acquired targets did not meet performance commitments satisfactorily. In 2021, Meorient Exhibition acquired a 51% stake in Shenzhen Huafu Exhibition Service Co., Ltd. for 52.53 million yuan. The annual report shows Huafu Exhibition's average annual after-tax net profit commitment during the commitment period was not less than 9.745 million yuan, but the actual net profit achieved during the relevant period was 3.6281 million yuan, representing a fulfillment rate of 37.23%.
For the market, "Meorient Exhibition + Stepfun Star" has been sufficient to trigger a limit-up. For the company, however, the risk disclosures in the announcement are equally clear: this investment currently cannot alter the structure of the main business, nor can it enable Meorient Exhibition to participate in Stepfun Star's operational decisions.
The capital market most enjoys trading on imagination ahead of time. However, whether this ultimately translates into performance and synergy depends on whether the minority stake purchased for 150 million yuan can evolve from a "concept label" into genuine investment returns in the future.
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