SHANGHAI, May 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Forbes has released its 2026 Midas List, the definitive ranking of the world's top venture capital investors. Alex Zhou, Managing Partner at Qiming Venture Partners, debuts at No. 80, recognizing his track record as a leading China-based investor focused on technology and artificial intelligence.

Known as the "Oscars of venture capital," the Midas List is the most prestigious benchmark in global venture capital. The 2026 list marks its 25th anniversary, with intensified competition across the industry. Surging valuations for frontier companies including SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic have brought 25 new entrants to this year's ranking.

Alex Zhou joined Qiming Venture Partners in 2014 and was promoted to Managing Partner in May 2024. He brings over 20 years of combined operational, entrepreneurial and investment experience, with a long-term focus on frontier technologies. He is one of the most active investors backing transformative AI and robotics startups globally.

Alex Zhou has delivered strong exit momentum in 2026. In the first five months of the year, four of his portfolio companies — Biren Technology, Zhipu AI, Axera Semiconductor and Viewtrix Technology — have completed public listings.

Alex Zhou adopts a pragmatic "half-step ahead" investment approach for tech and AI. Within his core areas of expertise, he identifies early industry inflection points and builds positions ahead of mainstream trends, avoiding speculative market hype. This forward-looking strategy has enabled him to capture outsized returns amid major technological paradigm shifts.

In late 2019, when China's domestic GPU ecosystem remained immature and AI computing power was yet to gain widespread market recognition, Alex Zhou invested in Biren Technology at its founding. He led the company's seed round and continued to support subsequent financings, helping the firm grow into the first Hong Kong-listed GPU company.

Alex Zhou made another early, high-impact bet on foundational AI in early 2022. At the time, large language models were still an emerging technology, and few investors recognized their commercial potential. His investment in Zhipu AI supported the development of the company's first-generation GLM model, laying the foundation for its core technology development.

Alex Zhou's early-stage focus also extends to embodied intelligence. He backed UBTECH Robotics eleven years ago and, in the current wave of embodied AI development, has led investments in a new batch of full-stack robotics companies integrating models and hardware, including TARS, Dexmal, GalaxyBot and ACE Robotics.

Founded in 2006, Qiming Venture Partners manages 11 USD funds and seven RMB funds, with $9.5 billion in assets under management. The firm focuses on two core pillars — technology and healthcare — forming a stable dual-driven investment strategy.

Qiming Venture Partners has maintained a long-term AI investment layout for over a decade. Starting with deep learning-focused investments in 2013, the firm has deployed more than RMB 12 billion into over 100 AI projects across the full industrial value chain, establishing itself as one of the most active and influential AI investors in China and Asia. The firm's investment roadmap follows technological evolution across LLMs, multimodal AI and embodied intelligence, rather than short-term market trends.

In healthcare, Qiming Venture Partners is one of China's earliest institutional investors dedicated to the sector. Over the past two decades, its healthcare team has invested in nearly 200 companies covering innovative pharmaceuticals, innovative medical devices, AI healthcare applications and other related areas. Its continuous investment has driven innovation in China's life sciences industry and delivered practical clinical value globally.

Qiming Venture Partners' technology and healthcare practices complement and empower one another. The firm's healthcare industry expertise supports its judgments on AI+ healthcare applications opportunities, while its frontier tech insights help identify disruptive technology-driven healthcare startups. This cross-sector synergy forms Qiming Venture Partners' key institutional advantage.

Qiming Venture Partners' recurring recognition on the Midas List across technology, healthcare and AI reflects its long-built institutional capabilities: consistent focus on core sectors, proactive early deployment, and full-cycle investment expertise covering early to growth-stage companies.

Across both core verticals, Qiming Venture Partners executes systematic layout years before market consensus emerges, partnering with founders for long-term growth and achieving steady exit results. 

"For the next two decades, AI will stand as the most certain investment opportunity in China's venture landscape," said Duane Kuang, Founding Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners. The firm's healthy cycle of fundraising, investment, portfolio management and exits continues to validate this long-term judgment.

About Qiming Venture Partners

Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. Currently, Qiming Venture Partners manages eleven US Dollar funds and seven RMB funds with $9.5 billion in capital raised. Since our establishment, we have invested in outstanding companies in the Technology and Healthcare industries at the early and growth stages.

Since our debut, we have backed over 580 fast-growing and innovative companies. Over 210 of our portfolio companies have achieved exits through IPOs at the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX, Shanghai Stock Exchange, or Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or through M&A or other means. There are also over 80 portfolio companies that have achieved unicorn or super unicorn status.

Many of our portfolio companies are today's most influential firms in their respective sectors, including Xiaomi, Meituan, Bilibili, Zhihu, Roborock, Hesai Technology, UBTech, WeRide, HyperStrong, Insta360, Unisound, Biren Technology, Z.ai, Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals, Tigermed, Zai Lab, CanSino Biologics, Schrödinger, APT Medical, Sanyou Medical, AmoyDx, SinocellTech, Insilico Medicine,  AusperBio, Yuanxin Technology, Medilink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, StepFun, among many others.

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In Thüringen ist ein großangelegtes Forschungsprojekt zur nächsten Generation der Nanostrukturierung gestartet. Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler der Technischen Universität Ilmenau, der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena und des Fraunhofer-Instituts für Angewandte Optik und Feinmechanik (IOF) in Jena entwickeln gemeinsam eine Hochpräzisionsmaschine, die Nanostrukturen auf Flächen von bis zu einem Quadratmeter erzeugen und vermessen soll. Die geplante 3D-Nanolithographie- und Nanomessmaschine (3D-NLM) soll dabei eine Positionierungsgenauigkeit erreichen, die kleiner ist als ein Atom. Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) unterstützt die erste Projektphase bis 2027 im Rahmen des Programms „Neue Geräte für die Forschung“ mit vier Millionen Euro.

Mit dem Vorhaben zielt das Konsortium auf eine Größenordnung, die bestehende Anlagen deutlich übertrifft. Bisher lassen sich hochpräzise Nanostrukturen auf photonischen Bauteilen nach Angaben der Projektbeteiligten nur bis zu einem Durchmesser von etwa 30 Zentimetern zuverlässig herstellen. Die neue Anlage soll Bearbeitungen und Messungen von Bauteilen mit Kantenlängen von bis zu einem Meter ermöglichen – und damit eine mehr als dreifache Vergrößerung der nutzbaren Fläche erschließen. Die Entwicklungsarbeiten an der Maschine sind angelaufen; das Gesamtprojekt ist in drei Phasen bis 2032 angelegt.

Nanostrukturen gelten seit rund zwei Jahrzehnten als Schlüsseltechnologie, weil sie Licht gezielt beeinflussen können, indem sie dessen Wellenlänge und Ausbreitung steuern. Solche Strukturen finden sich bereits heute in großflächigen Bauteilen, etwa in Displays moderner Fernsehgeräte, die auf Nanotechnologie basieren. Nach Einschätzung der Forscherinnen und Forscher reicht die Genauigkeit bestehender industrieller Lösungen jedoch nicht aus, um künftige Anforderungen in zentralen wissenschaftlichen und technologischen Anwendungsfeldern zu erfüllen.

Die in Thüringen entstehende 3D-NLM soll genau diese Lücke adressieren. Perspektivisch könnte die Maschine zur Fertigung und Charakterisierung elektronischer und photonischer Schaltkreise ebenso eingesetzt werden wie zur Herstellung von Hochleistungsoptiken für die Erdbeobachtung. Auch in der Energieforschung sehen die Projektpartner potenzielle Einsatzfelder. Durch die Kombination aus großflächiger Bearbeitung und atomnaher Präzision erhoffen sich die Beteiligten einen technologischen Sprung, der sowohl der Grundlagenforschung als auch der Entwicklung neuer Komponenten in der Optik- und Elektronikindustrie zugutekommen könnte.