China’s tech start-up boom sets sights on building multiple Silicon Valleys

Li Zexiang, who nurtured drone maker DJI, sees his incubator as providing the seeds for a flourishing innovation environment in China

Reading Time:3 minutes

Songshan Lake XbotPark in Dongguan has incubated a handful of promising Chinese start-ups under the guidance of founder Li Zexiang. Photo: Handout

Published: 10:00am, 26 Jan 2025

Li Zexiang, the Chinese professor credited with nurturing some of the country’s most valuable tech start-ups, including DJI, is embarking on a new mission to create multiple Silicon Valleys across China and drive the next wave of innovation.

“For a large country like China, it can’t rely on just one company. It needs communities, and these communities aren’t just limited to Shenzhen or the Greater Bay Area,” Li said in an interview with the Post this month. “It must span multiple cities nationwide, and only then can we see such communities emerge to bring variety and progress.”

Known as China’s start-up “godfather” and “billionaire maker”, Li now dedicates most of his time to promoting his incubation system, which he believes is the key to nurturing the next DJI by building environments that can produce and sustain numerous tech start-ups.

“If there were only one Hewlett-Packard in Silicon Valley, it wouldn’t be the Silicon Valley we know today. Instead, it has witnessed the continuous emergence of generations of tech companies and entrepreneurs,” Li said, adding that tech hubs such as Los Angeles and Boston have also contributed to the US tech landscape.

“We are talking about a country with a population of over a billion people, and true progress can only happen with the support of numerous innovative engines and communities,” he added.

Li Zexiang, a professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is credited with nurturing some of China’s most valuable tech start-ups, including DJI. Photo: Handout

Li talked to the Post at the start of January, a day before leading a team of more than 30 start-ups from his XbotPark incubator to Las Vegas to attend CES, the world’s largest consumer technology conference. There he aimed to promote his incubation system and shared factories to the global tech community.