Rapid iteration and escalation of technological risks: insurance is moving from "sporadic innovation" to "systematic coverage."

◎ Reporter Han Songhui and Dou Shiping

The Ministry of Science and Technology, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Intellectual Property Administration recently jointly issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the High-Quality Development of Science and Technology Insurance to Strongly Support High-Level Scientific and Technological Self-Reliance and Self-Strengthening” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”). The document aims to enhance insurance coverage for science and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, strengthen insurance protection in key areas.

Key stages of technological innovation such as R&D,成果转化, and industrialization often face numerous risks and challenges, urgently requiring science and technology insurance to provide risk protection and loss sharing. Several leaders of tech companies and science parks told Shanghai Securities News that tech startups, growth-stage companies, and mature enterprises face different risk points at each stage, and there is an urgent need for a comprehensive insurance system covering the entire lifecycle.

Technology Risks Continue to Rise with Accelerating Innovation

Yu Hang, head of the Commercial Group Insurance Department at PICC Property and Casualty, told Shanghai Securities News: Seed and startup companies are more concerned about risks of R&D failure and成果转化, and also need to safeguard key R&D personnel; during the growth stage, companies face challenges in product commercialization, requiring products like major technical equipment insurance to support mass production; in the mature stage, their insurance needs become more complex and diverse, involving supply chain risk management, overseas intellectual property infringement, and other integrated solutions.

Compared to general enterprises, risks associated with scientific research projects and tech products occur throughout the entire development process, with higher probabilities of various risks. Liu Ying, researcher at Renmin University’s Chongyang Financial Research Institute, told Shanghai Securities News: R&D projects have long cycles, and risks such as technical errors, core team loss, and R&D failure can turn initial investments into sunk costs; during成果转化 and market application phases, issues like intellectual property infringement and low market acceptance directly impact product revenue; even in stable operation stages, companies still face ongoing challenges like supply chain disruptions and raw material price fluctuations.

More challenging is that technology companies’ rapid iteration speeds lead to swift risk evolution and increasing complexity. Liang Zhongwei, general manager of the Property and Casualty Business Department at Ping An Property & Casualty, told Shanghai Securities News: frontier tech companies like those in AI and robotics now face core risks extending from traditional technical, product, and operational risks to emerging scenarios such as algorithm ethics, data bias, and responsibility attribution.

In the face of rapid technological risk evolution, existing insurance coverage still has significant gaps. Liu Ying pointed out that several fields currently face insufficient protection: first, there is a lack of customized insurance products for cutting-edge areas like AI and quantum technology; second, there is no risk-sharing mechanism covering the entire tech industry chain; third, there is a lack of insurance products suitable for long-term R&D projects that can be dynamically adjusted in phases; fourth, comprehensive risk protection supporting overseas expansion is absent.

Proactively Responding to New Demands in Industry Transformation

In response to the growing demand for risk protection from tech companies, insurance institutions are accelerating product innovation and actively addressing new needs arising from industry transformation.

Since 2025, new products in the tech insurance sector have been launched intensively: in July, PICC launched the “East Data West Computing” green computing industry risk solution; in September, China Taiping launched the dedicated保障 product “Jizhi Bao” for humanoid robots in Ningbo; in January this year, Ping An Property & Casualty introduced the first “Insurance + Leasing” product for embodied intelligent robots… The insurance industry is actively exploring innovations in tech risk protection.

However, current tech insurance still exhibits a pattern of “scattered innovation with insufficient overall coverage.” To address this, the “Opinions” require: support for localities to establish tech insurance supply and demand matching platforms in incubators, accelerators, university science parks, and high-tech industrial development zones; promote policy publicity and product promotion; encourage regions with conditions to introduce supportive policies, such as increasing premium subsidy ratios to reduce企业投保成本.

Yu Hang explained that premium burden is closely related to a company’s lifecycle. Startups are most sensitive to premiums, often prioritizing funds for R&D and operations, making fiscal subsidies particularly important. Some regions have already begun exploring this, such as Beijing Haidian District, which provides full premium subsidies for small and micro enterprises or national high-tech enterprises participating in comprehensive科技保险 in key fields, effectively easing their financial pressure.

However, Shanghai Securities News learned that some companies are not well-informed about local tech insurance premium subsidy policies, which affects their willingness to purchase insurance.

Looking nationwide, there is still considerable room to increase tech insurance premium subsidies. Liang Zhongwei admitted that few cities currently offer premium subsidies for tech companies, and the subsidy ratios vary greatly. Many tech sectors and products are not yet covered by subsidies.

The implementation of the “Opinions” is expected to promote the transition of tech insurance from “sporadic innovation” to “systematic coverage.” Liu Ying suggested that the insurance industry, tech industry, and academia should jointly build and share a tech risk database to accumulate key pricing data such as failure rates and technology transfer cycles; establish risk-sharing mechanisms involving government departments, financial institutions, guarantee agencies, and insurance companies for high-risk areas; and to alleviate premium pressures on enterprises, insurance companies can innovate with tiered products that dynamically adjust premiums and coverage. Governments at all levels can also increase fiscal subsidies to expand coverage and support the development of comprehensive tech insurance.