"Global No. 1 in Large Models" Zhipu's 360 million yuan property purchase in Beijing: E-commerce sparks a land-buying wave. Who will be the next to sweep the buildings?

Some companies in China’s technology and e-commerce sectors are going through an “awakening of real estate.”

Located in the northeastern part of Dongwang West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, the Diamond Building was acquired by Zhipu—known as the “world’s first large-model company”—for 361 million yuan. According to information from Qichacha, Beijing Hongzuan Technology Development Co., Ltd. recently completed an industrial and commercial change: the original shareholder, Anshi Hongzuan Investment Co., Ltd., withdrew, and Zhipu became the sole shareholder. The core asset involved in the transaction is the Diamond Building in the core area of the Zhongguancun Software Park.

This deal also draws industry attention to the hot “trend of buying land and sweeping buildings” by e-commerce and internet companies, which has been steadily heating up.

Since this year began, from major leading manufacturers to leaders in vertical and segmented fields, from core commercial areas across Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to e-commerce industry strongholds, companies including Alibaba, ByteDance, JD.com, Guming, and Haiya Group have moved frequently. Some have acquired Grade-A office buildings, while others have bid for industrial and commercial land at base prices. Single transactions range from several hundred million yuan to tens of billions of yuan. More and more, they are shedding the old, fixed label of “light-asset” operations.

Several interviewees told reporters that this heavy-asset deployment wave sweeping across the industry is by no means blind expansion. Instead, it is a choice driven by multiple factors, such as a low-point window period in the commercial office market, strong local policy support, and upgrades to their own business strategies. As new productive-force tracks such as AI large models, hard technology, and new-energy vehicles accelerate their rise, the main players in “building sweeping” may also see iteration, and some companies may be brewing a new wave of heavy-asset deployment.

E-commerce is seeing a “land-acquisition boom”

With e-commerce and technology companies as the main players, multiple core cities across the country are staging a wave of buying properties and securing land.

In the industry, Zhipu is known as the “world’s first large-model company.” Its recent move to buy property in Beijing has attracted market attention.

According to an announcement Zhipu released earlier, it plans to acquire Beijing Hongzuan Technology Development Co., Ltd. for a total consideration of no more than 361 million yuan. The change in industrial and commercial records this time indicates that the asset handover has been completed.

It is understood that the Diamond Building has a total gross floor area of about 22,700 square meters. It is located in the core area of the Zhongguancun Software Park, surrounded by internet and technology giants such as Lenovo, Baidu, Tencent, and Sina. It is a core hub for artificial intelligence and the digital economy industry in Beijing—and even across the country.

As to the acquisition reasons, Zhipu stated clearly in its announcement that it intends to use the property as the company’s headquarters for its daily administrative needs and large-model business operations. At the same time, it will rely on the potential value of the target property to support long-term strategic planning and enhance its overall ability to withstand risks.

Analysts believe that Zhipu’s land-acquisition move is not only an important milestone for the company’s own development, but may also signal a new paradigm for heavy-asset layout by AI large-model-related companies in core cities and core locations.

In fact, Zhipu’s land acquisition is not an isolated case; it is a snapshot of the heavy-asset layout boom in the e-commerce and internet sectors this year.

Leading giants have become the core force in this wave of land acquisitions. In the first two months of 2026, ByteDance acquired two land plots in Haidian District, Beijing, totaling about 6.1 billion yuan: 2.8 billion yuan for the former Lan Jing Li Jia site plot and 3.305 billion yuan for the third phase of the Dongsheng Technology Park plot.

JD.com has also been active. On April 20, a subsidiary of JD Group won a commercial service land parcel along the river in the core area of Qianjiang Century City in Hangzhou by bidding 663 million yuan, to build JD Group’s Zhejiang regional headquarters. In the same month, JD Industry Development acquired 117 mu of industrial land in the Huangpu District of Guangzhou to build a robot intelligent industrial park. Overseas, it also did not slow down: in April, JD completed the handover of the Wigan project in the UK, further laying out an European logistics network.

Of note is that non-top-tier e-commerce companies are becoming a new source of strength in this round of land acquisition.

Industry insiders say that, besides internet giants, leaders in live-streaming e-commerce, cross-border e-commerce, vertical category e-commerce, and regional e-commerce have all made moves this year. They have been acquiring land in e-commerce industry strongholds such as Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Yiwu, Shishi in Fujian, Cixi in Zhejiang, and Chongqing. The land parcels involved rarely relate to residential development; instead, they focus on building self-owned headquarters, live-streaming bases, supply-chain warehousing, and industrial parks.

According to an incomplete count by the reporter, just since this year began, several companies from different industries have launched their layouts. In early 2026, in Guangzhou’s Baiyun District, Haiya Group’s related companies bought two commercial land parcels for 177 million yuan to build a beauty e-commerce headquarters and a live-streaming product selection center. In Hangzhou’s Qianjiang Century City, the tea-and-beverage e-commerce company Guming Technology spent 455 million yuan to secure a core plot, planning to build a nationwide headquarters. In Shishi, Fujian, the e-commerce headquarters of Rui Xiang Zhixuan Food started construction. In Cixi, Zhejiang, two e-commerce companies acquired land at Financial Harbor in the same period, building a live-streaming e-commerce industrial park and a cross-border e-commerce operating platform, respectively. In Hechuan, Chongqing, a digital industry development company spent 36.71 million yuan to acquire retail commercial land, planning a county-level e-commerce incubation base.

“Logistics companies and non-top-tier e-commerce firms acquiring logistics warehousing land in the central and western regions are being actively welcomed by local governments. The needs from both sides are highly aligned,” said Mr. Mu, a senior industry expert in the e-commerce and cross-border sector, in an interview with Caixin Media. “Currently, logistics costs in the central regions are already lower than in coastal areas, creating a clear window. Given that land supply indicators in core coastal cities are becoming tight, and priority is given to high-tech enterprises, some e-commerce companies are attracted to shift their development to the central and western regions.”

Regarding the cross-border e-commerce field, Mr. Mu said that many Chinese companies rely mainly on overseas platforms such as Amazon to solve warehousing issues, but overall the investment-output efficiency is not very ideal and their reputation is average. Because they have not yet met the conditions for heavy-asset investment, and because they worry that injecting large amounts of capital could lead to difficulties, companies do not dare to build and invest in warehousing abroad easily. Currently, cross-border e-commerce tends to acquire land in coastal cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou, where the markets are mature and going overseas is more convenient.

Analysts told reporters that in 2026, centralized land acquisitions by non-top-tier e-commerce companies have become a new industry phenomenon. Companies are no longer simply relying on leasing third-party premises. Instead, they are reducing operating costs by holding land assets, tying themselves to local industrial policy, and aggregating resources from upstream and downstream. This marks a new stage in which small and mid-sized e-commerce companies are gradually entering a development phase that integrates online and offline operations, with deep, heavy-asset-focused efforts.

Commercial office assets and industrial land prices are at historical lows

From Zhipu acquiring the Diamond Building in Beijing for 361 million yuan, to ByteDance buying up land in Haidian for 6.1 billion yuan, and then to Guming and Haiya placing bets in e-commerce strongholds—why are e-commerce and internet companies collectively moving into land acquisition and “building sweeping”?

Interviewees pointed out that behind this are multiple considerations, including market cycles, policy support, business strategy, and investment-output ratios. This is not only a rational decision by companies to seize market windows, but also an inevitable choice to respond to industry competition and lay out long-term development.

“One important reason is that the price of commercial office assets is currently at a historical low point,” Zhang Bo, director of the 58 Anjuke Research Institute, said. He noted that the commercial office market is in an adjustment cycle, and the degree of price adjustment for commercial offices is clearly greater than that for residential properties. Even in core cities, the price pullback for quality office buildings is far larger than that for residential housing—placing prices at the cycle’s bottom.

Anjuke’s online data shows that in the first quarter of 2026, the selling prices of Grade A office buildings in Shanghai fell substantially from their 2021 peak. Peripheral areas such as Qingpu and Lingang saw even larger adjustment drops.

Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, told reporters that when commercial property rents and asset prices are in a relatively low range, companies can turn “long-term rent” into “fixed costs + high-quality assets” through self-building or acquisitions. This allows them to lock in long-term operating costs and optimize their balance sheet.

In this regard, Mr. Mu also pointed out that the scarcity of land resources—especially industrial land—has become increasingly prominent. After manufacturing adjustments in recent years, some industrial land price “bubble” has been squeezed out, and what remains is a value trough that has not risen for a decade.

“No matter how AI and robotics develop, robots and equipment still need land to operate. The transition from ‘made in China’ to ‘intelligent manufacturing in China’ increases demand for industrial land. When e-commerce companies acquire land, it’s both about capturing the value of land scarcity and reserving space for intelligent warehousing, distribution centers, and R&D test sites,” Mr. Mu said.

At the same time, local governments’ policy support helps companies achieve the dual goals of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, as well as strategic expansion.

Bai Wenxi believes that in many places, governments have rolled out models such as “supplying land for specific industries,” and “low land price + high levels of self-ownership + high tax revenue thresholds.” As e-commerce and logistics are industries characterized by high cargo volume, high employment, and high tax revenue, they have become key targets for local governments’ investment attraction. When acquiring land, companies can get better conditions, and through supporting logistics parks and deeply linking with headquarters projects, they can integrate their plans with the regional economy.

“Some places will subsidize e-commerce headquarters purchases. There are also preferential measures such as tax refunds and supporting talent housing. For example, we learned that in one city district, for full-building purchases or self-built headquarters for e-commerce and platform economy, a one-time subsidy of 5% of the total purchase price is provided, with a maximum of 50 million yuan. For purchasing a whole building for an e-commerce headquarters, 5%-10% talent housing may be built and allocated directionally. Alternatively, talent apartments can be applied for at 40 square meters per person, and priority is given to securing children’s school enrollment,” Zhang Bo said.

Another important reason is companies’ own needs.

An analyst in the commercial office property sector said that competition in the internet and e-commerce sectors has shifted from online traffic to “fulfillment capability + offline scenarios.” Self-owned properties can meet customized needs such as data-computing centers, confidential R&D, and high-load power supply. The leasing market is unlikely to provide such highly stable spaces, making self-ownership more controllable.

Could “Zhipu’s new listing” become a main force in “building sweeping”?

As this wave of e-commerce self-use demand gradually turns into on-the-ground execution, a new question has emerged: which other companies might enter the “building sweeping and land acquisition” phase next?

Zhang Bo told reporters that, based on the national “14th Five-Year Plan” and the direction of cultivating new productive forces, AI large models, new energy vehicles, semiconductors, and humanoid robots will be key areas for the development of new productive forces. These are important directions for technological self-reliance and economic transformation and upgrading—naturally also the directions in which local governments focus their key policy support.

“AI large-model training, inference, and intelligent computing centers have high requirements for electricity, load-bearing capacity, and safety level. They are more inclined to build their own computing parks around core scientific research cities, or to acquire and upgrade IDC facilities,” Bai Wenxi said. “Meanwhile, to attract high-end scientific research talent, companies need integrated ‘office + living’ parks. This drives headquarters-based land acquisition around core scientific research cities.”

An analyst believes that Zhipu’s acquisition of the Diamond Building could be an important signal. In the future, it is not ruled out that large-model companies will continue to sweep land in core cities.

Demand from hard technology and advanced manufacturing sectors is also a force that cannot be ignored. “Semiconductor, robotics, and low-altitude economy companies have rigid needs for customized factories, clean workshops, and test flight venues. These companies will acquire land of their own and, at the same time, help bring upstream and downstream parts of the industrial chain to cluster in the same region,” the analyst told reporters.

Some companies told reporters that, at the same time, some local governments are also willing to attract hard-tech enterprises to settle by offering more flexible land policies, tax relief, and fast-track environmental assessment channels. For example, on April 24, in Shenzhen’s Bao’an District, it launched land parcel A425-0617 as part of an “intelligent manufacturing base for high-end AI advanced-class substrates and flexible circuit boards” project. The total investment exceeds 10 billion yuan. From industry selection to land listing, it took only 42 days, setting a record for the fastest over-10-billion-yuan project in Bao’an District.

New energy vehicle and mobility companies are also considered buyers that cannot be ignored. Zhang Bo noted that leading automakers have strong funding and strong ability to drive industrial chains. Local governments offer them low-price land supply and tax relief to encourage them to build regional headquarters, R&D centers, or delivery centers—aligning with the main line of green economic development.

“The future land-acquisition pattern will place more emphasis on self-use as the main purpose, with operations leading,” Bai Wenxi said. “Loose and extensive land acquisition will decrease. Projects will put more emphasis on investment return rates and long-term operating cash flow. Overall, the pace of land acquisition will remain steady with some upward movement, but it will no longer be simply about stockpiling land. Instead, it will truly serve business upgrades and industrial clustering.”

Analysts believe that under this development trajectory, in the coming years, in China’s core cities and in cities with industrial competitive advantages, the office, commercial services, industrial, and warehousing logistics markets may frequently see the presence of technology companies.