- Foreign investment in Hangzhou rose nearly 12% in the first half, with AI, robotics and advanced manufacturing emerging as the city’s biggest magnets for global capital
- The shift highlights Hangzhou’s transformation from an e-commerce hub into a growing base for deep-tech innovation and industrial applications
Hangzhou attracted $2.61 billion in foreign direct investment in the first half of the year, up 11.96% year on year, according to data from the Hangzhou Investment Promotion Bureau.
The figure ranked second among China’s sub-provincial cities and first in Zhejiang province.
High-tech industries accounted for a record 68.1% of the city’s newly utilized foreign investment, 25.7 percentage points above the national average.
Emerging technology sectors have become the main drivers of Hangzhou’s appeal to international investors.
The top foreign-invested companies in the first half were concentrated in areas including AI, semiconductors, biomedicine, brain-computer interfaces, smart glasses and advanced materials.
Singapore-based security and integrated services company Certis, backed by Temasek, is among the latest global companies expanding in Hangzhou.
After visiting embodied AI companies including Unitree (宇树科技) and DEEP Robotics (云深处科技), Certis’ robotics business chief and international business executive team moved quickly to establish a local subsidiary and an AI and robotics research center.
“Hangzhou provides Certis with an important window into the development of embodied AI applications,” said Raahul Kumar, senior executive leading international businesses, robotics and enterprise strategy at Certis.
Singapore as a key partner
The sources of foreign investment are also becoming more diversified. Singapore has emerged as a key partner.
In February, Singapore Power, fully owned by Temasek, established its integrated energy China headquarters in Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan district. In June, Singapore Airlines launched a daily direct route between Hangzhou and Singapore.
The growing business links reflect deeper industrial integration between the two regions.
As of June 2026, Singapore companies had invested in 674 projects in Hangzhou, with actual investment totaling $12.91 billion, making Singapore the city’s third-largest source of foreign investment.
Hangzhou is also shifting from traditional investment attraction toward supply-chain-driven recruitment.
The city has launched pilot programs targeting the embodied AI and networking communications sectors, identifying 148 potential companies and securing 18 projects to strengthen industrial chains.
In the second half of the year, Hangzhou plans to expand the approach to nine major industrial clusters and more than 40 key supply chains.
The city will target over 300 companies, including industry leaders, specialized “little giant” firms and startups, while conducting overseas investment promotion trips to locations such as Paris and Toulouse.
Why it matters globally
The record 68.1% share of high-tech foreign investment signals Hangzhou’s transition from an e-commerce powerhouse into a hub for frontier technology development.
As a new generation of AI and robotics companies from the city moves toward commercialization and capital markets, global investors are increasingly looking beyond individual companies and toward the ecosystem behind them — one designed to turn emerging technologies into scalable industrial applications.
“Hangzhou’s biggest advantage is its ability to transform uncertain technologies into globally replicable industrial capabilities,” Certis’s Kumar said.
