Futian secures over 70B yuan in intended investment for H1, reports 8.3% GDP growth

Futian District secured more than 300 incoming investment projects in the first half of 2026, with the total intended investment value exceeding 70 billion yuan (US$10.37 billion).

The financial sector, the district’s economic anchor, delivered an outstanding performance, welcoming several domestic and international financial heavyweights including global investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, which has ramped up its presence in the Chinese futures market. Goldman Sachs Futures officially debuted in Futian as the fourth wholly foreign-owned futures company on the Chinese mainland to expand its footprint here.

Additionally, three 10-billion-yuan funds, including CITIC Capital AMC, have established operations in the district. Leveraging its deep financial foundation and the capital ecosystem of the Xiangmi Lake Venture Capital Neighborhood, Futian is driving investment support and industrial clustering.

The district has addressed the growth challenges of tech-innovation enterprises within Shenzhen’s industrial chains of 20 emerging industrial clusters and eight future industries. Behind the success is a 160-billion-yuan capital pool built by Futian over the years, consisting of 55 subfunds, which has invested in over 4,500 enterprises. 

Futian is constructing a comprehensive, full-chain capital system featuring a FOF platform, industrial fund clusters, and seed funds, ranging from the expansion of the Shenzhen AI Terminal Industry Fund at the beginning of 2026 to the establishment of the Jianyuan Zhengxing Private Equity Investment Fund, the nation’s first asset investment company (AIC) FOF.

At the beginning of this year, Futian launched an action plan for the systematic restructuring of the local industrial ecosystem. Over the past six months, more than 60 high-quality projects, including Advanced Fiber Resources (Zhuhai) Ltd., have moved into these new quality industry communities, with a total investment exceeding 5 billion yuan. 

Futian’s specialized support configuration, which equips each community with one operating entity, one anchor enterprise, one service station, one professional financial service team, one exhibition and exchange center, and one urban cultural coffee space, enables enterprises to enter an industrial park as soon as they step into a building. The approach turns neighbors within the same building into partners in the supply chain, facilitating seamless industrial clustering.

In the first half of 2026, more than 10 key foreign-funded enterprises and projects, including the AMD Shenzhen Ecosystem Innovation Center and Whoop Technology, as well as three landmark projects from APEC economies, set up operations in Futian. This brings the total number of multinational corporate headquarters in the district to 36, maintaining Futian's leading position in the city. Jack Huynh, senior vice president of AMD, said that the company highly values the local speed of innovation.

This year, Futian released a list of over 200 “AI+” application scenario opportunities, allowing enterprises to connect with market demands right from the start. More than 10 projects, including 51talk, Shidai Xiaoju, and Unlimited Starry Sky, have taken root in Futian. The district has also facilitated the rapid settlement of multiple projects, including RoboSense Low-Altitude Technology.

Futian has delivered an outstanding economic performance in the first half of 2026, with its gross domestic product (GDP) growing by 8.3% year on year, securing the highest growth rate among all districts in Shenzhen.

During the first six months, Futian led the city in multiple key indicators. Its industrial value added of enterprises above the designated size, referring to those with an annual operating revenue of at least 20 million yuan, surged by 17.8%, and fixed asset investment rose by 15.9%. Additionally, the district’s total import and export volume increased by a substantial 34%, while land-use efficiency remained among the highest in the city, the consumer market steadily recovered, and fiscal revenue maintained sound growth.

The financial sector played a pivotal role in the growth. In the first half of the year, Futian’s financial sector recorded 136.2 billion yuan in value added, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%, maintaining its No. 1 ranking in Shenzhen in both scale and growth rate. During the period, Futian attracted 93 new financial institutions, a 55% increase year on year. Notable arrivals included Goldman Sachs Futures, Shenzhen’s first wholly foreign-owned futures company, and the online branch of a securities brokerage firm. 

The district also added 70 new private equity and venture capital funds, with a total scale exceeding 30 billion yuan. Local enterprises secured 5.2 billion yuan in private equity and venture capital financing, doubling the amount from the previous year and channeling crucial capital into market entities.

Futian has also carved out a strong position in technology finance. The district witnessed the launch of the nation’s first eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) insurance consortium and an AI industry insurance consortium. It also pioneered the national pilot program of the “Ke Xin Tong” service, which improves the overall efficiency of cross-border salary settlements by over 90%, leveraging financial innovation to accelerate the growth of tech enterprises.

Positioned strategically as a “CBD + tech zone,” Futian saw its industrial investment maintain a stable growth trajectory alongside its leading industrial output growth. The first batch of 11 differentiated new-quality industrial communities commenced operations, attracting 63 high-quality projects during the six-month period with a total investment of nearly 5 billion yuan. Futian added 1.1 million square meters of high-quality industrial space in the first half of the year, with 182,600 square meters of space being leased or sold. 

The district’s core AI sector also showed significant progress. The Hetao Lion Rock Artificial Intelligence Laboratory won the global championship in the embodied intelligence competition at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Meanwhile, the Shenzhen Loop Area Institute completed the training of a 1.6-trillion-parameter large model based on local domestic computing power clusters, ranking among the top in Shenzhen. 

The number of champion manufacturing enterprises in Futian doubled to 21, including 12 provincial-level individual champions and one national-level champion. The construction of the OpenHarmony ecosystem accelerated, with 35 OpenHarmony application scenarios implemented, 46 “OpenHarmony + AI” innovative demand scenarios launched, and three of the city’s first batch of OpenHarmony demonstration projects completed, ranking first in Shenzhen.

Fixed asset investment grew by 15.9% year on year, driven by major projects and urban renewal and industrial expansion efforts. Key projects such as the Shenzhen International Exchange Center and the renovation of the east and west areas of the Huafucun residential community were completed. Investment in newly started projects skyrocketed by 104% year on year. Focusing on urban advanced manufacturing and digital industries, Futian actively promoted equipment upgrades and technological renovations. Industrial investment in the district surged by 80.7% in the first half of the year, maintaining the top position in Shenzhen in both total scale and growth rate.

Futian continued to prioritize consumption recovery and expansion. The district’s total retail sales of consumer goods reached 75.4 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, representing a year-on-year increase of 2.4%.

Futian’s import and export volume grew by 34%. The district launched a foreign enterprise service platform and attracted landmark foreign investment projects, including the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Shenzhen Ecological Innovation Center and the German law firm Meissner Bolte. Actual utilized foreign investment reached 1.08 billion yuan.