(Jan 9): Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares jumped on optimism that the tech giant can benefit if Nvidia Corp’s H200 chips are made available in China.
The stock climbed as much as 4.8% in Hong Kong, the most since Nov 24, after China’s plans to approve some imports of the H200 chips as soon as this quarter. Other Chinese artificial intelligence firms Kuaishou Technology and JD.com Inc also gained more than 4% each.
The shares are boosted by the expectation that China may allow domestic players to use H200 chips, which should bode well for firms like Alibaba, said Vey-Sern Ling, managing director at Union Bancaire Privee.
Access to these AI semiconductors would help Chinese firms upgrade and run their models as they seek to compete with the likes of OpenAI and other US rivals. The H200 is an older-generation chip that the Trump administration has said can be exported to China. The US government restricts sales of more advanced processors on national security grounds.
Alibaba has been the biggest spender among Chinese firms to power AI-related businesses, and a secure chip supply is expected to boost its cloud segment. That bodes well for the stock, which has declined more than 20% from a peak in early October amid concerns over its core e-commerce earnings and Beijing’s regulations on live-streaming businesses.
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The tech giant has told Nvidia in private that it is interested in ordering more than 200,000 units of the H200, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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