Taorun Semiconductor has completed IPO tutoring registration with the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau, moving a step closer to a public listing. The company had already finished a relocation and a shareholding reform as part of its listing preparations.
Founded in 2015, Taorun operates in China’s analog signal-chain chip segment. The report described it as a leading domestic player in high-performance analog and mixed-signal chip design, led by Guan Yi, a veteran with nearly 20 years of experience in chip design.
One of the company’s best-known labels is its connection to Xia Zuoquan, described in the report as the "most formidable angel investor." Xia is widely known for his early investment in BYD, which the report said generated a return of more than 80,000 times. His involvement in Taorun brought not only capital but also industrial and ecosystem resources.
12 funding rounds since 2018
After Zhengxuan Investment, the firm led by Xia, joined the company, Taorun emerged as a fast-rising name in the primary market. Since 2018, it has completed 12 financing rounds, covering industrial capital, state capital and financial capital, with cumulative funding of more than 1 billion yuan, according to the report.
BYD also joined as industrial capital during that period, helping push collaboration between intelligent vehicles and semiconductors. Official figures cited in the story said Taorun’s revenue grew at an annualized rate of more than 80% from 2022 to 2024.
Founder Guan Yi returned to China in 2015
The report said Xia’s investment in Taorun was far from accidental. In 2010, Xia stepped down from his post as executive vice president of BYD Group while remaining a director, then shifted to full-time equity investment. Drawing on his industrial background, he concluded that technological innovation was the most promising route during China’s period of economic transition and structural adjustment.
Zhengxuan Investment was set up with a clear mandate: invest only in hard-tech companies that strengthen national technological capabilities, focusing on intelligent manufacturing, robotics, aerospace, TMT and new energy.
Xia has also stressed that people come first in controlling the high failure rate of early-stage investing. In his view, investors in early projects need to understand both technology and business so they can think alongside founders as co-builders and keep their focus on sectors with strong industrial ecosystems and clearer development trends.
That approach also shaped Zhengxuan’s team. The report said all partners are required to have industrial or engineering backgrounds, with many having worked for years at technology companies such as BYD, Huawei and ZTE.
On the founder side, Guan Yi holds a master’s degree from New York University and previously worked in Broadcom’s APD division. He has nearly 20 years of chip-design experience and led large, complex mixed-signal projects including 4G base-station master control chips.
At the time, core technologies for high-performance mixed-signal chips were long dominated by overseas suppliers including Broadcom and Marvell, while domestic penetration remained very low, the report said. It added that the field was highly competitive and capital-intensive, with a single tape-out running into the millions of yuan.
In 2015, Guan gave up a high-paying overseas job and returned to China to found Taorun Semiconductor. The company set out to drive domestic innovation at the data-infrastructure layer and fill a long-standing gap in China’s high-end analog chip industry. From the start, it positioned itself as a technology-driven chip design company serving business clients in communications and automotive sectors, while spending heavily on core architecture.
Taorun’s first self-developed chip began to win preliminary industry recognition in 2017. In 2018, its first high-performance analog chip was taped out. The report said those milestones signaled future potential and drew the attention of Xia, who has repeatedly said he prefers teams willing to spend years on hard-core technology and long-cycle breakthroughs instead of chasing short-term hot themes.
Zhengxuan joined in the angel round
After years inside the BYD system, Xia had a direct view of long-term import-substitution demand for high-speed in-vehicle communications and BMS signal-chain chips in new energy vehicles. Against that backdrop, when Taorun opened up to external financing in 2018, Zhengxuan Investment entered the angel round with several million yuan, according to the report.
That deal became the starting point for Taorun’s later funding run. Over the next eight years, the company completed 12 rounds and raised more than 1 billion yuan in total. Cowin Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, GL Ventures, BYD, and local state-backed investors from Shanghai and Fujian all joined, while Zhengxuan continued to follow on.
Data from Tianyancha cited in the article showed Xia is the only individual shareholder in Taorun other than founder Guan Yi, with an ultimate beneficial stake of 5.3194%. Zhengxuan Investment holds a combined 9.3432%, making it the company’s second-largest institutional shareholder.
Key IP delivered in 2020, products entered mass production in 2025
With backing from investors, Taorun also moved ahead on commercialization. The report said the company successfully developed and delivered key IP for core customers in 2020. In 2023, it was recognized as a national-level specialized and sophisticated "Little Giant" enterprise. In 2025, multiple products entered the mass-production cycle.
Today, Taorun is one of the few domestic companies that have both short-reach and mid-to-long-reach optical communication DSP capabilities. Its mass-produced products have filled several localization gaps, the report said.
The company has established deep cooperation with multiple customers in communications, data centers and new energy vehicles. Official data cited in the report said demand for high-speed interconnect chips continued to expand on the back of AI infrastructure buildout, helping Taorun maintain annualized revenue growth of more than 80% from 2022 to 2024. It also said the company has entered the supply chain of one of China’s top three telecom equipment vendors.
A possible fifth listed company for Xia
Taorun’s IPO push is the latest example of Xia’s long-running role in backing hard-tech companies through to the public markets. Zhengxuan Investment’s website lists positions in companies including UBTECH, Lianhe Lifeng, Yutai Microelectronics, Debao CNC, Bomingwei, Shenzhen Xinneng Semiconductor and Ruishi Chuangxin, with an emphasis on early-stage hard-tech investing.
Xia has said that entrepreneurs create social wealth and that the precondition for investment returns is helping high-tech companies grow. In the report, he was also quoted as saying: 「投资是一个产业链，从种子轮投资、VC 投资、PE 投资，到后面的二级市场，被投企业都需要对应的投资人。并且在投资产业链上每个环节的投资者，都应坚持长期投资的理念，帮助企业长大。」
The article also revisited Xia’s earlier investment record. In 1995, as a BYD co-founder and its first angel backer, he invested 300,000 yuan in Wang Chuanfu. In the years that followed, as BYD entered a rapid growth and transition phase, Xia joined full time and took part deeply in corporate governance and system building.
The report said Xia accompanied BYD’s transformation from a battery leader into a major Chinese automaker, then gradually stepped back from day-to-day operations. He has since recorded an investment return of more than 80,000 times and remains among BYD’s top three natural-person shareholders.
In 2013, Xia also became one of the earliest angel investors in UBTECH. Citing Securities Times, the report said UBTECH burned through its angel-round financing in less than half a year, after which Xia personally lent the company 6 million yuan to help it through the crunch. At the end of 2014, he also provided another 10 million yuan for operations using his personal credit.
According to the report, Xia believed UBTECH founder Zhou Jian had entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to commercialize products. He was quoted as telling Zhou: 「按照有利于公司长远发展的方式去做，没钱的话我可以借给你。」
UBTECH listed in Hong Kong in 2023. In the same year, Yutai Microelectronics, a PHY chip design company Xia entered in 2017, listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market. The report added that by April 2026, Shangshui Intelligent, a core equipment maker for lithium battery slurry processing that Zhengxuan had backed for four years, also listed on ChiNext.
If Taorun completes its IPO, it would become the fifth listed company backed by Xia after BYD, UBTECH, Yutai Microelectronics and Shangshui Intelligent.
Xia has also said: 「科技向善才会开花结果。」 He added: 「我们在做投资的时候永远要保持敬畏之心，不要过分投机，不要把投资当成自己暴富的工具，这样最终才能有好的回报，同时有利于产业发展。」
The 2025 Hurun China Rich List showed Xia with a fortune of 35.5 billion yuan, tied for 172nd place. The report said that figure was up 34% from 2024 and was mainly supported by his BYD holdings and valuation gains in listed stakes under Zhengxuan, including UBTECH and Yutai Microelectronics.
The original article was published by the WeChat account Lieyun Select and written by Sun Yuan.