(Yicai) April 11 -- Shanghai's investment of nearly CNY3.7 billion (USD499 million) into three strategic funds targeting startups in integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence has attracted both public and private capital, resulting in a nearly five-fold boost in funding scale over the past nine months.

Following the selection of the first batch of nine market-oriented sub-funds, the eastern city has leveraged CNY17.2 billion (USD2.4 billion) in social capital -- almost five times the original investment -- Shanghai State-Owned Capital Investment, the manager of the three mother funds, announced at a press conference yesterday.

Last July, Shanghai established three industry funds, totaling an estimated CNY100 billion (USD13.8 billion), aimed at investing in startups in these three emerging fields, with a focus on pioneers in hard technology.

The municipal investor has already begun selecting the second batch of sub-funds, which is expected to reach 80. The two batches of sub-funds aim to attract investment from nearly 200 private companies, covering cutting-edge technologies ranging from photonic integrated circuits to gene therapy.

Specifically, the IC fund has invested in wafer factories and integrated device manufacturers, focusing on high-end chip design, and production, as well as key equipment, materials, and components, said General Manager Wen Zhi. The establishment of upstream and downstream cooperation mechanisms promotes close collaboration between local material and equipment producers and wafer factories, improving the stability and autonomy of the supply chain, Wen added.

The biomedicine fund focuses on innovative drugs, devices, supply chains, and interdisciplinary research, positioning Shanghai to become a global leader in biomedicine.

Meanwhile, the AI fund aims to leverage the government’s leadership in resource allocation for computing power, models, and data corpus, accelerating the construction of next-generation computing systems and data infrastructure.

In addition to leveraging social capital, SSCI is actively connecting with science and technology institutions and fostering the creation of sub-funds for direct project investment and industrial incubation. It has already partnered with more than 10 institutes.

Going forward, the three mother funds will focus on cutting-edge technology projects with international competitiveness, according to Dai Minmin, president of SSCI.

The funds will deepen cooperation with enterprises owned by the central government, as well as private and foreign economic entities, to attract even more social capital for joint investment. Additionally, there is a need to accelerate the establishment of science and technology research institutes and basic research foundations, Dai concluded.

Editor: Emmi Laine