Last year, a subtle yet profoundly significant change occurred in the landscape of Shaanxi's industrial funds.

Mid-year, the Shaanxi Zhongying Fuyao No. 1 Equity Investment Fund was officially established. Simultaneously, the province's first new energy vehicle AIC fund was launched.

By the end of the year, the 2-billion-yuan Shaanxi Strategic Emerging Industries Development M&A Investment Fund completed its setup, setting a new record for single-fund size in the province. This was quickly followed by the establishment of the 1-billion-yuan Xitou Zhongying Fuyao Industrial Fund, becoming one of the largest funds deployed in Shaanxi by Bank of China's financial arm.

These funds share a common characteristic: their core capital contributors are all bank-affiliated financial asset investment companies (AICs), such as CCB Financial Asset Investment backed by China Construction Bank, Bank of China Investment under Bank of China, and ICBC Financial Asset Investment affiliated with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

If one only looks at the numbers, this appears to be yet another news story about a batch of very large funds being launched.

However, when considering the participants, investment directions, and timing together, this more closely resembles a systematic deployment of national-level "patient capital" in Shaanxi.

Patient Capital Bets on Shaanxi AICs, or financial asset investment companies, have long been viewed more as "specialized tools" within the banking system.

They were born during the cycle of deleveraging and debt-to-equity swaps, with their original mission being to resolve non-performing assets and promote market-oriented debt-to-equity conversions.

But in recent years, guided by policy, a shift is underway. AICs are transitioning from being "problem asset handlers" to "industrial structure investors," meaning their business focus is turning towards long-term equity investments in technological innovation enterprises.

The reasons are not complicated. On one hand, traditional debt instruments have inherent shortcomings when supporting hard tech and strategic emerging industries. On the other hand, the banking system itself also needs a form of asset that is more long-term and deeply integrated with industry.

Consequently, AICs are taking the lead in establishing industrial funds, using long-term equity to underpin national strategic-level industrial upgrading. Risks can be shared among multiple parties, investment cycles can be extended, and there can be high synergy with local industrial policies.

The reason AICs have chosen to intensively bet on Shaanxi is, first, due to policy inclination. In September 2024, the National Financial Regulatory Administration expanded the pilot scope for AIC equity investments to 18 cities, including Xi'an. By March 2025, this pilot was further expanded to cover the entire province of Shaanxi.

Secondly, AICs, as long-term capital at the national level, are also seeking regions capable of sustaining the cycles of hard technology.

Shaanxi has entered this field of vision. From a capital perspective, Shaanxi is a province with significant "structural tension."

If one were to summarize the foundation of Shaanxi's sci-tech innovation industry, it roughly boils down to: possessing numerous military-industrial entities, universities, and research institutes, resulting in a nationally leading high density of scientific research; having high technological barriers in industries like aerospace, equipment manufacturing, and new materials; and possessing high industrial potential that has not yet been fully commercialized.

Simultaneously, Shaanxi has long faced a practical problem: the slow commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, with market and financial capital failing to keep pace.

In other words, Shaanxi does not lack "technology that can get things done," but rather "capital that can run alongside it."

And AICs have arrived precisely to fill this structural gap. This is not a place preferred by short-term speculative capital, but it is恰恰 the kind of region where national-level long-term capital can most easily achieve certainty.

The high technical barriers of Shaanxi's sci-tech targets reduce the risk of investment target homogenization. Fields such as military industry, aerospace, high-end equipment, new energy, and new materials highly overlap with national strategy. Furthermore, local governments have a strong willingness to participate in co-construction and risk-sharing.

Focusing on Strategic Emerging Industries and Hard Tech Thus, it can be observed that bank-affiliated "national team" players began intensively making moves in Shaanxi throughout last year.

In June, the establishment plan for the Shaanxi JINZI Gongrong Electronic Information Industry Development Equity Investment Fund was approved. This fund, with a total amount of 1 billion yuan, was jointly initiated by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Shaanxi Branch in coordination with ICBC Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd., together with Shaanxi Financial Asset Management Co., Ltd. and the Xi'an Industrial Doubling Guidance Fund.

In the same month, the Shaanxi Zhongying Fuyao No. 1 Equity Investment Partnership, established through cooperation between the Xi'an Innovation Investment Fund and Bank of China Investment, among others, completed its registration.

The Xi'an Economic and Technological Development Zone saw an even denser clustering of AIC fund launches. These included the province's first new energy vehicle AIC fund, the Xi'an Jianyuan Xitou Fund (primarily invested by CCB AIC), the province's largest AIC fund by size, the Shaanxi Strategic Emerging Industries Development M&A Investment Fund (ICBC AIC), and the Xi'an Xitou Zhongying Industrial Fund (BOC AIC).

Among these, the Xitou Zhongying Industrial Fund has a scale of 1 billion yuan. This fund is the largest equity investment fund established in Shaanxi with capital from Bank of China Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd. since the inception of the AIC equity investment pilot.

The Shaanxi Strategic Emerging Industries Development M&A Investment Fund, jointly funded by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Shaanxi Branch in coordination with ICBC Investment, Chang'an Huitong, and Western Advantage Capital Investment Co., Ltd., boasts a size of 2 billion yuan, making it the single largest AIC equity fund established in the province.

Looking at the Shaanxi funds involving AICs collectively reveals a common trait: they have almost entirely avoided broad tech or consumer sectors, instead focusing intensely on Shaanxi's strategic emerging industries and hard tech industries.

The investment focus of these funds leans heavily towards core segments of high-end equipment and the manufacturing system. For instance, the Xi'an Xitou Zhongying Fuyao Industrial Fund specializes in intelligent manufacturing and precision manufacturing within the high-end equipment industry.

Furthermore, they target critical "bottleneck" technologies within strategic emerging industries that are verifiable. For example, the Shaanxi Strategic Emerging Industries Development M&A Investment Fund explicitly focuses on eight major strategic emerging industries, including new materials, hydrogen energy, semiconductors and integrated circuits, new energy vehicles, intelligent complete sets of equipment, and aerospace. It prioritizes investing in high-quality technology enterprises possessing independent intellectual property rights, potential for hard tech achievement transformation, and attributes of core technology import substitution.

Additionally, they target industrial platform-type companies with space for mergers, acquisitions, and integration. The emergence of the Shaanxi Strategic Emerging Industries Development M&A Investment Fund signifies that Shaanxi aims not only to "incubate new enterprises" but also to "reorganize existing industrial capabilities."

The investment direction itself draws a clear boundary; this is capital prepared for upgrading the industrial system. Unlike market-oriented VCs/PEs, the core demand of AICs is not short-term financial return, but rather achieving structural objectives—stabilizing industries, supplementing supply chains, and underpinning key technologies—under controllable risk.

From a more macro perspective, this also sends a very clear signal: Shaanxi's industrial direction is being incorporated into the allocation framework of national-level long-term capital.

Long-term Industrial Partners The collective betting of national-level long-term capital on Shaanxi signifies an even more profound change and impact, perhaps lying in the quiet rewriting of the local government's investment attraction logic.

When institutions like BOC AIC and CCB AIC enter the fray, the signal released is not merely, "Shaanxi has good projects, come and invest," but rather, "Shaanxi's industrial direction has already been recognized and pre-positioned by the national capital system."

The significance of this for local governments far exceeds that of a single fund itself.

In the past, local investment attraction logic was project-oriented, competing on tax incentives, land policies, and administrative efficiency.

Under the traditional investment attraction model, local governments often faced the pain points of good projects not coming, incoming projects not staying, and projects that stayed not growing substantially.

But for hard tech companies, the more realistic questions are: Where does the money come from? What about the next funding round? What is the exit path?

The involvement of AIC funds actually provides a systematic solution: binding enterprises to medium-to-long-term development through equity, promoting industrial integration through M&A funds, and leveraging banking system resources to catalyze subsequent financing.

When AICs participate, the confidence of local governments in investment negotiation也随之 changes. Investment attraction is no longer just about "offering policies, land, and finding companies," but begins to revolve around configuring capital tools for the industrial chain, even informing companies that pathways for funding, M&A, financing, and exit have been prepared in advance.

For hard tech enterprises, this is an extremely strong signal of certainty and highly attractive.

When AICs become "investment attraction partners," they will also profoundly influence the local industry.

The financing structure of enterprises will change; companies will no longer rely entirely on short-term loans, and the proportion of equity capital will increase.

Simultaneously, local industrial integration will accelerate, as M&A funds may promote the stronger becoming even stronger, breaking the pattern of weak and fragmented players.

Furthermore, external companies will be more willing to come, because they can not only establish a presence but also sustain their development.

Consequently, it is foreseeable that the landing of AIC funds in Shaanxi will not bring short-term prosperity, but rather a slow yet more stable transformation. Local industrial development is beginning to have "long-term partners."

From this perspective, what is being reshaped for the future is not only Shaanxi's hard tech and strategic emerging industries but also a new paradigm for the synergy between local industrial investment attraction and capital.