Shenzhen MSU-BIT University is a Sino-foreign cooperative university established through the collaboration of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), and Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU). It was created based on the consensus reached between the leaders of China and Russia. The university has independent legal personality.

On October 27, 2016, the university was officially established with the approval of the Chinese Ministry of Education. On September 13, 2017, President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin respectively sent congratulatory messages to the university's opening ceremony. Liu Yandong, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, and Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, jointly launched the opening ceremony.