GEOVIS and 15 partners plan a RMB 1.5 billion space computing company in Hefei

According to Taibo, GEOVIS (中科星图) announced on the evening of 15 October that it will jointly establish a company with 15 other parties, including Sugon, Hygon, CAS Satellite, GEOVIS TT&C and Sugon Data Creation. Registered capital is planned at RMB 1.5 billion and the company is to be based in Hefei. It will design, manufacture and operate a space computing constellation, build space computing network infrastructure and provide services.

Per the announcement, GEOVIS will subscribe RMB 200 million for a 13.33% stake and GEOVIS TT&C will hold 3.33%, for a combined RMB 250 million. The other 14 shareholders, including Sugon, plan to subscribe a combined RMB 1.25 billion for 83.33%.

Eight funds backed by Anhui province and Hefei will subscribe RMB 940 million, about 62.67% of registered capital. The largest single subscriber is Hefei Industry Investment Space Computing Equity Investment Partnership at RMB 240 million. Hefei Industry Investment Xingzhi Xinyu Equity Investment Partnership and Hefei High-tech Venture Capital subscribe RMB 200 million each, Anhui Wanneng Tiansuan Equity Investment Partnership RMB 100 million, the Anhui AI Theme Investment Fund RMB 80 million, the Wuhu Huaan Strategic Emerging Industries Fund RMB 10 million, and two further Anhui funds RMB 50 million each.

As of the announcement date the company had not yet been established and still needs to complete business registration.

Our take: with local funds holding more than 60%, the venture shows how deeply local governments are taking part in space computing infrastructure.

(All figures are single-source, from the company announcement as reported by Taibo, and have not been independently verified.)