Shanghai Mayor Woos Global Investors with Bold Open-Equity Push

Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng announced a set of open-equity investment projects in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, life science, high-end manufacturing and emerging service industries to share growth opportunities with domestic and foreign investors.

"Shanghai is a place to witness miracles and see dreams come true, and we welcome you to invest and start up businesses in the city for great success," Gong said at the 2025 Shanghai City Investment Promotion Conference on Thursday, addressing chiefs of many foreign-funded companies who are on site for the CIIE.

At this year's CIIE, projects valued at more than 180 billion yuan (US$25 billion) were presented for investment. Take the AI sector as an example: Stepfun made a financing request of 3 billion yuan for its foundation models, while companies including MiniMax, Blacklake Technology, Infinigence AI, QBoson Quantum Technology, and Cixtech Technology also listed investment opportunities to seek funds between 300 million yuan and 1 billion yuan.

Investors can contact the Shanghai Commerce Commission and the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization for details.

"The city has achieved most of the targets set for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), and our blueprint for the next five years is also well-formed. We are confident in our ability to transform Shanghai into a better city for living, working, and investing," Gong said.

Shanghai ranked No. 5 among the world's best cities, with its regional gross domestic product exceeding 5.39 trillion yuan in 2024. In the first three quarters of this year, the city's economy grew by 5.5 percent compared to the same period last year, outperforming the national average despite the city's already high comparative base.

With knowledge-intensive industries accounting for 38 percent of Shanghai's economic output in 2024, its economic performance, sci-tech strength, and comprehensive competitiveness have improved. Last year, integrated circuits, biomedicine and AI exceeded 1.8 trillion yuan.

There are more than 25,000 high-tech enterprises in Shanghai, supported by over 170 national-level innovation platforms, while 93 companies have been listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, also known as the STAR Market, with a market value of over 2 trillion yuan, the No. 1 in the country.

"Shanghai will stick to the high-quality development model that is driven by innovation and technology, and we sincerely expect the participation of foreign investors and companies," Gong said.

A "marvelous" business environment

Shanghai is home to 3.5 million business entities, among which nearly 80,000 are foreign-invested, making the city China's largest destination for foreign investment. In the past five years, Shanghai attracted an accumulative US$100 billion in foreign direct investment, while 1,060 multinational companies have chosen Shanghai to be the location for their regional headquarters.

AstraZeneca, a leading global pharmaceutical firm, is one of the many that have close relationships with Shanghai.

AstraZeneca has made Shanghai a core link in its worldwide development, starting with the establishment of its global research and development center in the city in 2019 and continuing with the upgrade of that center to a global strategic R&D center last year.

Iskra Reic, executive vice president of AstraZeneca International, expressed that Shanghai boasts a "marvelous" business environment, offering great opportunities through platforms like CIIE for foreign companies to expand in the region and beyond.

"Leveraging the CIIE platform, AstraZeneca is deepening its investment in China to harness the country's world-class science and advance common health," Reic said.

"Since relocating to China last year, the pace of innovation and scientific progress has energized me. The continued advancements across science and industry have reinforced our confidence in expanding AstraZeneca's investment and presence in China.

"With our global strategic R&D center in both Shanghai and Beijing, we will accelerate the translation of innovation into life-changing medicines," Reic said.