Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd is a state-owned company founded in September 1994 under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shanghai. It mainly engages in equity investment in hi-tech and modern services industry.It has invested over RMB 10bn in diverse sectors including information technology, biomedicine, new energy, environmental protection, new materials and financial services. In 2004, the company and Microsoft set up the joint venture Shanghai MSN Network Communications Technology Co Ltd that operates MSN China's website: msn.com.cn.