Industry titans from various sectors are crossing into the new energy field, positioning themselves upstream as the “shovel sellers”.
According to the latest information from Yujian Energy, in May 2026, Zhong Shanshan, through his company Yangshengtang Co., Ltd., made a strategic investment of approximately 500 million yuan in Zhejiang Zhibang Lithium Battery, a solid-state battery material enterprise, holding about 10% of the shares, targeting the electrolyte materials at the very upstream of the industrial chain.
This is Zhong Shanshan’s first foray into the new energy field. This businessman, who has topped the Forbes China Rich List for five consecutive years and currently has a net worth of $68.1 billion, has never been involved in the power battery sector before. From selling water to making vaccines and then investing in solid-state electrolytes, Zhong Shanshan’s logic of crossing boundaries remains consistent – he looks for niche entry points with high technical barriers, light assets, and no oligarchs for the time being. When solid-state batteries are regarded as the “ultimate route” for power batteries, the track is already overcrowded. CATL and BYD have heavily invested in cell manufacturing, with a GWh-level production line investment often reaching hundreds of millions of yuan. Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring, deliberately bypassed this red ocean.
Yujian Energy’s research found that Jack Ma is investing in energy storage, Wuliangye is expanding in photovoltaic, and New Hope is also intensively deploying. Those in the water-selling, wine-making, and pig-raising industries are all finding their positions in the new energy field.
Zhong Shanshan’s investment of 500 million yuan was quite precisely targeted.
Zhibang Lithium Battery was established in March 2024, with its R & D center and base in Quzhou, Zhejiang. Many members of its core team come from Ganfeng Lithium Battery. Ding Li, the company’s chairman, and Xu Xiaoxiong, the actual controller, have both worked at Ganfeng Lithium Battery, a leading domestic solid-state battery enterprise. Xu Xiaoxiong indirectly holds about 28.57% of Zhibang Lithium Battery’s shares and steers the technical direction; another key figure, Zhang Yongxiang, with a background in the investment circle, directly and indirectly holds about 11.47% of the shares and is responsible for capital operations.
Zhibang Lithium Battery focuses on solid-state electrolyte materials, covering three technical routes: oxides, polymers, and sulfides. Such restraint is not common in the industry. In the solid-state battery industry, Qingtao Energy, Weilan New Energy, and CATL are all extending downstream, and battery cells are the main battlefield they are vying for. Zhibang Lithium Battery, however, focuses on solid-state electrolyte materials – a link that no one wants to do but no one can bypass.
Yujian Energy believes that Zhong Shanshan obviously values not the current scale of this company but the technical team and process reserves inherited from Ganfeng Lithium Battery. Notably, the second-largest investor in Zhibang Lithium Battery is the state-owned assets of Quzhou. The fact that a company established less than two years ago can receive funds from both the former richest man and state-owned assets indirectly confirms the strategic value of solid-state electrolyte materials – it is not just a business but also a part of local governments’ bets on the new energy industrial chain.
The solid-state electrolyte market selected by Zhong Shanshan is at a critical juncture where “price determines survival”.
On May 17th, at the Guoxuan High-Tech Science and Technology Conference, Pan Ruijun, a senior director of the company, presented a set of data: 70% to 80% of the cost of a sulfide solid-state battery is concentrated in the electrolyte, and 70% to 80% of the electrolyte cost is lithium sulfide. In other words, the cost of lithium sulfide almost determines the price ceiling of solid-state batteries. Pan Ruijun gave a quantitative critical point: When the price of lithium sulfide drops to 500,000 yuan per ton and the price of solid-state electrolytes drops to 300,000 yuan per ton, solid-state batteries can reach the commercial threshold of 1 yuan per watt-hour.
On Zhibang Lithium Battery’s official WeChat account, only two articles have been posted so far, and the most recent one dates back to the end of last year. The article also states that solid-state electrolytes still have a long way to go. They carry people’s expectations for high-safety and high-energy-density batteries and also face the pain of transforming from “laboratory results” to “industrial products”.
There is still a distance for solid-state electrolytes to achieve large-scale commercialization, but the technical routes are converging, and industry standards are starting to be formulated. Yujian Energy analyzed that this is precisely the logic behind Zhong Shanshan’s decision to enter the market at this moment. In April, Zhibang Lithium Battery publicly announced a patent for high-performance solid-state electrolytes and participated in the formulation of the industry standard “Test Method for Air Stability of Sulfide Solid Electrolytes”. By investing during the window period when the technology is not yet finalized and the giants have not yet monopolized the market, when the real opportunity arrives, one will already occupy an irreplaceable position in the industrial chain.
Zhong Shanshan is not an isolated case. A group of top enterprises and entrepreneurs from non-energy fields are entering the new energy field in their own ways and rushing into different tracks in the new energy sector.
At the beginning of 2026, Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, officially entered the carbon neutrality industry, covering energy storage, wind power, and photovoltaic. He did not engage in battery manufacturing but participated in the investment of “Weiheng Intelligence”, an energy storage enterprise, through Yunfeng Fund. This company, founded by Professor Sun Yaojie from Fudan University, has submitted an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is valued at 2.7 billion yuan. Those from the Internet industry use capital to leverage technology-based companies and pre-position themselves in the energy storage field, which is closer to applications and has lighter assets.
Wuliangye, a liquor giant with revenues exceeding 40 billion yuan in 2025, has been actively involved in the new energy field since 2023. In April 2023, it established Sichuan Wuliangye New Energy Investment Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan; in August of the same year, it joined hands with PetroChina to establish a joint venture, with its business scope covering photovoltaic power generation, energy storage, and hydrogenation facilities. In February 2025, Wuliangye also jointly established a joint venture with LONGi Green Energy and Yingfa Deyao, focusing on the HPBC high-efficiency battery project. In October of the same year, Wuliangye built a 10MW/20MWh energy storage power station in its industrial park. For a liquor company to invest in photovoltaic and energy storage is a huge leap, but it has capital that others can hardly match. Wuliangye has industrial parks, factories, and stable electricity demand, and energy storage and photovoltaic are natural extensions around its own scenarios.
The New Hope Group in the agricultural field has also quietly entered the market. Zhejiang Xinzhi New Energy Co., Ltd., controlled by its subsidiary Xingyuan Environment, mainly engages in the leasing of photovoltaic power generation equipment and the manufacturing of components. As an agricultural leader with feed and pig-raising as its core businesses, it also has the confidence to cross into the photovoltaic field. In its cooperation plan with SPIC, it is mentioned that “photovoltaic projects with complementary livestock and light will be deployed around large-scale farms and slaughterhouses in various places”.
It is not difficult to see that cross-boundary players entering the new energy field have a common action logic. Especially for large consumer companies, their years of accumulated high-end manufacturing capabilities, raw material control capabilities, and supply chain management experience provide a potential foundation for them to enter high-growth sectors such as new energy, and they have the pre – conditions of abundant cash on the books and smooth financing channels.
Yujian Energy observed that a clear pattern can be found in the path choices of these cross – boundary players – almost all of them are seizing territories upstream. The liquor company does not compete with CATL for battery cell production lines, the feed company does not manufacture power batteries, and the Internet company does not build GWh – level factories. Wuliangye focuses on energy storage and photovoltaic around its own industrial park, New Hope uses its agricultural and livestock resources for photovoltaic power generation, Jack Ma uses the fund to invest in energy storage technology companies, and Zhong Shanshan uses the R & D genes of Yangshengtang to bet on solid – state electrolyte materials. They are all looking for the entry point that best matches their original capabilities. Although the paths are different, the logic is the same: only focus on the upstream, do supporting work, and provide services. Zhong Shanshan’s choice of upstream materials is to seize the unfixed niche track during the technological vacuum period.
And the former richest man himself once said: “For a small enterprise to grow and expand, the types of business it operates must be unique and highly profitable, because there is no economies of scale for it to accumulate slowly.” Solid – state electrolytes naturally have this property in the early stage of commercialization – they are difficult to replace in the short term, the downstream demand is highly certain, and the technical threshold keeps most players out.
500 million yuan is not a large amount for Zhong Shanshan, who has Nongfu Spring’s annual revenue of 52.5 billion yuan and a net profit attributable to the parent company of about 15.8 billion yuan. But this investment is made on the eve of the commercialization of solid – state batteries and at the material end of the most upstream of the industrial chain. When the entire industry starts to operate, all those who manufacture solid – state batteries will need electrolytes. The principle is as simple as selling water – those who pan for gold may not make money, but those who sell shovels are unlikely to lose. From Jack Ma to Wuliangye, from New Hope to Zhong Shanshan, these cross – boundary players have all chosen to be the “shovel sellers” in the new energy era. This is not a coincidence but the most practical judgment of the value of the industrial chain.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Yujian Energy”, author: Zhao Jianan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.
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