Key Points
- Hillhouse Capital (HHLR Advisors) maintains high conviction in Chinese concept stocks (中概股), with 92% of its Q4 2025 US equity portfolio market value derived from these assets.
- HHLR Advisors aggressively increased holdings in Pinduoduo (拼多多) and Alibaba (阿里巴巴), making Alibaba its second-largest US holding with an increase of over $200 million USD in fresh capital.
- Three major PE firms – HHLR Advisors, Highsight Capital (高毅资产), and Greenwoods Asset Management (景林资产) – collectively bought heavily into Pinduoduo in Q4 2025, viewing a >14% stock price correction as a “bottom-fishing” opportunity.
- HHLR initiated new positions in Alphabet (Google) and TSMC (台积电), indicating a strategic move into AI-adjacent tech and semiconductor infrastructure, aligning with a belief that some AI applications are nearing commercial closed-loop status.
- The firm exited or significantly reduced positions in NetEase (网易), Baidu (百度), Futu Holdings (富途控股), and Webull, shifting away from fintech, gaming, and traditional search towards e-commerce, biopharmaceuticals, and AI infrastructure.
- Winning Sectors: Consumer e-commerce, Biopharmaceuticals, Real Estate Tech, AI Infrastructure.
- Losing Sectors: Fintech/Trading Platforms, Gaming & Entertainment, Search & Digital Advertising, Traditional Logistics, Education Tech.
On February 18, HHLR Advisors (the independent investment management platform under Hillhouse Capital (Gaoling Ziben 高瓴资本)) dropped its Q4 2025 US stock holdings, and the data tells a fascinating story about where some of China’s smartest money is flowing.
The takeaway?
Chinese concept stocks (Zhonggaigu 中概股) aren’t going anywhere.
In fact, they’re becoming an even bigger bet.
The Big Picture: What HHLR Is Actually Doing
By the end of 2025, HHLR held stakes in 33 US-listed companies—but here’s where it gets interesting:
92% of their total market value comes from Chinese concept stocks.
That’s not accidental.
It signals aggressive conviction in Chinese tech, e-commerce, and biotech despite the noise around valuations and market corrections.
The portfolio reshuffling tells the real story of where institutional smart money is rotating:
- Major increases: Alibaba (Alibaba 阿里巴巴) and Pinduoduo (Pinduoduo 拼多多)
- Major decreases: NetEase (Wangyi 网易), Futu Holdings (Futu Konggu 富途控股), and near-complete exits from several holdings
- Net result: A hyper-concentrated bet on e-commerce, biopharmaceuticals, and AI-adjacent tech
Chinese Concept Stocks: The Core Thesis
Let’s talk about what dominates HHLR’s top ten holdings.
The lineup includes:
- Pinduoduo (Pinduoduo 拼多多)
- Alibaba (Alibaba 阿里巴巴)
- BeiGene (Baiji Shenzhou 百济神州)
- Futu Holdings (Futu Konggu 富途控股)
- Legend Biotech (Chuanqi Shengwu 传奇生物)
- KE Holdings (Beike 贝壳)
- Plus three US-listed companies (ARRIVENT BIOPHARMA INC, WEBULL CORP, CYTEK BIOSCIENCES INC, CLEARWATER ANALYTICS HLDGS I)
Seven of the top ten are Chinese companies.
This concentration isn’t about diversification—it’s about thesis conviction.
Hillhouse sees durability in Chinese tech and consumer plays, even when markets get nervous.
The Pinduoduo Play: Three Giants Going “All In” on the Correction
Here’s where things get spicy.
Not just Hillhouse, but three of China’s biggest private equity firms are loading up on Pinduoduo at the same time.
This is classic accumulation behavior—and it points to a coordinated thesis around undervaluation.
The Numbers Behind the Pinduoduo Bet
According to SEC disclosures:
HHLR Advisors:
- Q4 2025 holdings: 10.721 million shares
- Increase from Q3: +2.129 million shares
- Signal: Aggressive accumulation
Highsight Capital (Gaoyi Zichan 高毅资产):
- Q4 2025 holdings: 1.333 million shares
- Increase from Q3: +629,000 shares
- Signal: Substantial conviction play
Greenwoods Asset Management (Jinglin Zichan 景林资产):
- Assets under management: ¥100 billion RMB ($13.8 billion USD)
- Q4 activity: Added over 600,000 shares of Pinduoduo
- Signal: Even mega-cap PE firms are buying the dip
Why Now? Understanding the “Bottom-Fishing” Strategy
In Q3 2025, Pinduoduo reported ¥108.28 billion RMB ($14.94 billion USD) in quarterly revenue—a 9% year-over-year increase.
That sounds solid, right?
Here’s the catch: it marked the first time revenue growth dropped into single digits.
The market didn’t like that signal.
Pinduoduo’s stock price corrected more than 14% in Q4 following the earnings release.
But here’s where institutional thinking diverges from retail panic:
Three major PE firms saw a buying opportunity, not a red flag.
This is textbook “bottom-fishing”—accumulating quality assets when sentiment turns negative but fundamentals remain intact.
The Alibaba Surge: Hillhouse’s New Favorite E-Commerce Play
While Pinduoduo represented a strategic dip-buying opportunity, Alibaba (Alibaba 阿里巴巴) became something bigger in HHLR’s portfolio: their second-largest US holding.
The magnitude of the increase:
- Share count: From 3.29 million to 5.43 million shares
- Position value: From $588 million USD (approx. ¥4.26 billion RMB) to $796 million USD (approx. ¥5.77 billion RMB)
- Capital deployed: Over $200 million USD in fresh capital
This move underscores Hillhouse’s strong structural preference for the e-commerce sector.
Translation: They believe Chinese e-commerce platforms—whether Pinduoduo’s social commerce or Alibaba’s ecosystem—are defensible, profitable, and worth deploying significant capital into.
The Exits: What Hillhouse Is Abandoning
Portfolio construction is 50% about what you buy and 50% about what you don’t hold.
HHLR’s Q4 exits were telling:
Partial Exits (Significant Reductions):
- Futu Holdings (Futu Konggu 富途控股): Slashed nearly 50% of position (from 3.238 million to 1.63 million shares)
- Webull: Near-total liquidation (from 33.08 million to 5.97 million shares—a 82% reduction)
Complete Liquidations:
- NetEase (Wangyi 网易)
- Baidu (Baidu 百度)
- Full Truck Alliance (Manbang 满帮)
- Sea Limited (Donghai Jituan 冬海集团)
- Bright Scholar (Boshile 教育)
The pattern here suggests Hillhouse is moving away from:
- Fintech/trading platforms (Futu, Webull)
- Gaming and entertainment (NetEase)
- Search and digital advertising (Baidu)
- Logistics infrastructure (Full Truck Alliance)
- Education tech (Bright Scholar)
And moving toward:
- Consumer e-commerce (Alibaba, Pinduoduo)
- Biopharmaceuticals (BeiGene, Legend Biotech)
- Real estate tech (KE Holdings)
- AI and semiconductor plays (new)
The AI and Semiconductor Angle: Future-Proofing the Portfolio
While Hillhouse concentrated its portfolio around proven winners, they didn’t ignore the AI megatrend entirely.
New/Expanded AI-Adjacent Positions:
Alphabet (Google):
- HHLR entered a new position with 7,300 shares in Q4
- But that’s not the main story—look at what other smart money did
Greenwoods Asset Management (Jinglin Zichan 景林资产):
- Holdings: 2.69 million shares of Alphabet
- Increase from Q3: +926,000 shares
Oriental Harbor Overseas Fund (Dongfang Gangwan 东方港湾), managed by Dan Bin (Dan Bin 但斌):
- Holdings: 1.2935 million shares of Alphabet
- Quarterly increase: 40.55%
- Signal: Aggressive accumulation in a big AI beneficiary
TSMC (Taijidian 台积电) — The Semiconductor Bet:
HHLR also entered a new position in TSMC during Q4:
- Holdings: 11,300 shares
- Position value: $3.434 million USD (approx. ¥24.89 million RMB)
- Signal: Positioning for the semiconductor infrastructure play underlying AI
This is strategic optionality—if AI adoption accelerates, TSMC is the indispensable chip foundry.
What the Experts Are Saying About AI and Tech Valuations
Industry observers point to a critical inflection point in how investors should think about AI investments:
The AI industry is in rapid development, with several segments already achieving commercial closed-loop status.
Translation: AI isn’t purely speculative anymore—some applications are generating real revenue and profits.
The consensus view among sophisticated investors:
- Tolerance for capex is warranted as long as underlying technology continues to iterate
- An “AI bubble” is less of a concern than previously thought
- Investment opportunities worth tracking: Computing power infrastructure, AI applications, energy storage, and power equipment
This philosophical shift matters because it explains why Hillhouse is comfortable staying in Pinduoduo (a high-growth e-commerce play) while also dipping into Alphabet and TSMC (AI infrastructure plays).
They’re not hedging—they’re building a barbell portfolio with conviction bets in proven winners and optionality in emerging infrastructure winners.
The Bottom Line: Where Smart Money Sees Opportunity
HHLR’s portfolio reshuffle tells a clear story about the direction of sophisticated Chinese capital:
What’s winning:
- E-commerce (defensible, profitable, accessible growth)
- Biopharmaceuticals (secular tailwinds in healthcare)
- Real estate tech (market recovery play)
- AI infrastructure (computing, semiconductors)
What’s losing:
- Fintech/trading platforms (saturation, regulatory questions)
- Entertainment/gaming (sentiment headwinds)
- Search advertising (AI displacement concerns)
- Traditional logistics (margin compression)
The meta-narrative:
Even when a stock like Pinduoduo corrects 14%, multiple mega-cap PE firms are buying, not selling.
That’s the signal to pay attention to.
It suggests Chinese concept stocks—specifically e-commerce and biotech—remain the preferred allocation vehicle for institutional capital that can afford to think in 3-5 year timeframes.
The portfolio concentration and aggressive accumulation in Chinese concept stocks tell investors that despite regulatory uncertainty and valuation cycles, the fundamental case for Chinese tech leaders remains intact.
