Speaker: Su Xiaobo, University of Oregon

Financialization has become a central force to reshape urban development. This paper explores one specific mechanism of financialization—state-led venture capital (SVC)—to elucidate an emergent trend in which governments act as equity investors to support startups and scaleups. Such investments are not necessarily aimed at ownership, but rather at fostering technological innovation and promoting urban development, which gives rise to state venturism. China provides a particularly revealing case of state venturism: governments at multiple administrative levels have leveraged SVCs to support high-tech firms within their jurisdictions. The study case is Hefei, China’s capital of state-led venture investment. Through equity investment, municipal governments in China are forging new alliances with private investors and entrepreneurial actors—governing not via direct ownership of production assets, but through equity participation and market-shaping investment vehicles.

Xiaobo Su is a professor of urban and regional development in the Department of Geography, University of Oregon. Currently his research interest is in state-led venture investment and its role in urban innovation in China and the U.S. 

This event series is sponsored by the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab, and the Australian Centre on China in the World.

Join Zoom Meeting Link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97955535212