China is researching the establishment of a national-level mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fund, according to national news agency Xinhua News.

This is part of the efforts to optimize the layout of government investment funds and strengthen the guidance over their investment direction in a bid to accelerate the development of “new quality productive forces,” a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Tuesday.

“We will explore establishing a national-level merger and acquisition fund,” Wang Changlin, vice chairman of the NDRC, reportedly said at a press conference on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported in a separate report.

China will “strengthen the planning and guidance of government investment funds, promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity, and accelerate the cultivation and development of new productive forces,” he was quoted as saying, using a catch-all term for emerging and high-tech sectors. Wang did not offer further details, the report added.

According to Bloomberg, the announcement underscores the urgency with which China is pursuing its tech ambitions, where it’s a leader in dronemaking and a contender in AI through homegrown firms like DeepSeek.

The country is building large numbers of data centers, and the M&A fund announcement comes after last month’s launch of a national venture capital fund backed by 100 billion yuan ($14.36 billion) .

“Practice has proven that “strangleholds” can’t hold back progress,” the NDRC’s Wang said, referring to industries such as semiconductors which the US has used as leverage in its trade war with China. “China possesses a powerful innovative spirit and immense potential for innovation.”

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