Since November 2025, three joint-stock bank AICs (Arlington Asset Investment Corp) - Xingyin Investment, Zhaoyin Investment, and Xinjin Jintou - have successively commenced operations, each swiftly executing their first external investment within a single month.

Based on incomplete statistics, these three institutions have deployed nearly 7 billion yuan in external investments to date, uniformly targeting hard-tech sectors such as new energy and smart vehicles.

The "first investments" of the three AICs were rapidly executed. All three completed their inaugural investment deals in less than a month after opening, with the shortest timeframe being just 8 days from launch to first investment.

As the earliest joint-stock bank AIC to open, Xingyin Investment has cumulatively deployed over 6 billion yuan since its official launch on November 16, 2025, up to December 31, 2025.

On December 8, Xingyin Investment completed an investment in Fujian Hengshen Electronic Material Technology Co., Ltd., with a capital contribution of 25.151254 million yuan for an 11.0926% stake; in the same month, Xingyin Investment collaborated with Industrial Bank's Nanchang branch to complete a 1-billion-yuan Series C strategic investment in Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Battery Technology Co., Ltd.

According to the head of Xingyin Investment, the initial batch of over 10 projects funded by the company are directed towards new energy and new material industries such as semiconductors, photovoltaics, lithium mining, and engineering plastics. These investments cover technology and private enterprises in regions including Fujian, Guangdong, Shanghai, Anhui, and Shandong, effectively helping companies optimize their capital structure, deepen transformation and development, and create long-term value.

Notably, as the second domestic joint-stock bank AIC, Xinjin Jintou swiftly executed its first external investment just one week after its inauguration.

According to publicly available business registration information on Qichacha, on December 24, 2025, Xinjin Jintou completed an investment in Shenzhen Ganghua Dingxin Clean Energy Co., Ltd., with a capital contribution of 64.4234 million yuan for a 49% stake, making it the company's second-largest shareholder.

Besides the aforementioned two joint-stock bank AICs, Zhaoyin Investment recently disclosed details of its first external investment.

On December 24, 2025, Changan Automobile announced that its board meeting had approved a proposal for capital increase in a controlled subsidiary, agreeing to Shenlan Automobile conducting a capital increase and share expansion. Among this, Zhaoyin Investment invested 500 million yuan in cash, becoming the ninth largest shareholder of Shenlan Automobile.

It is evident that the first external investments of these three joint-stock bank AICs all focus on technological innovation, green and low-carbon initiatives, and specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative enterprises, with key deployments in the lithium battery industry chain, the smart automotive sector, and the clean energy industry.

"The first investments of the three joint-stock bank AICs focus on technological innovation and strategic emerging industries, demonstrating distinct characteristics of 'investing early, investing small, and investing in technology'," said Lou Feipeng, a researcher at China Postal Savings Bank. "All three employ a linked model of 'equity + debt', emphasize compatibility with the company's existing equity structure, maintain moderate investment proportions, and focus on cultivating long-term value."

Reshaping the AIC Industry Landscape

Prior to this, China's AIC market was long dominated by five major state-owned banks, with their investments primarily concentrated in traditional sectors such as power and heat production and supply, and civil engineering construction.

Industry insiders view the concentrated execution of the first investments by the three joint-stock bank AICs as not only signifying the formal transition of China's bank-affiliated AIC landscape from a "state-owned bank dominance" to a "5+3" diversified competitive structure but also releasing a clear signal that joint-stock banks are breaking through traditional credit boundaries and increasing their focus on technology finance.

"The establishment of joint-stock bank AICs marks the evolution of China's AIC industry from state-owned bank dominance towards diversified collaboration," Lou Feipeng stated during an interview. While state-owned bank AICs primarily serve capital-intensive, long-cycle state-owned enterprises for deleveraging, joint-stock bank AICs, leveraging their flexible mechanisms and market acumen, quickly address the financing gap for technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, bridging the divide between traditional credit and venture capital, and promoting the transformation of AICs from debt-resolution tools into innovation-enabling platforms. Their differentiated development can create complementary advantages, better serving technological innovation enterprises and projects.

Looking ahead, as more banks enter the AIC field, industry competition will gradually intensify, and differentiated positioning will become the core competitive advantage.

In the view of Zeng Gang, Director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, "In the future, the business scope of AICs may further extend from non-performing asset disposal to more diversified directions such as industrial funds, specialized investments, green investments, and ESG projects, becoming a key platform for large banks to conduct capital operations and enhance asset allocation capabilities and strategic flexibility."

Lou Feipeng believes that joint-stock bank AICs will accelerate applications for private fund licenses, deepen coordinated investment and lending with their parent banks, and build comprehensive financial service ecosystems covering the entire lifecycle of enterprises.

Recently, the head of Xingyin Investment stated that going forward, they will increase investments tailored to local conditions in areas such as new energy, new materials, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and advanced manufacturing, accelerate the application for a private equity investment license, assist "hard-tech" enterprises in overcoming critical technological bottlenecks, and continuously strengthen the construction of an investment ecosystem to provide clients with full lifecycle financial services.