According to media reports, after resolving the long-standing regulatory issues regarding TikTok's US business, ByteDance's valuation logic is now being re-evaluated by the market. On January 15th, the well-known technology media The Information published a in-depth analysis article written by Anita Ramaswamy and Jing Yang. The article pointed out that among the group of tech companies with extremely high valuations but still remaining private, SpaceX and China's ByteDance are undoubtedly the two largest. SpaceX has signaled its intention to go public this year, and with ByteDance reaching an agreement with the United States and resolving the survival crisis of TikTok, the path for this Chinese tech giant to go public seems to have been paved in the coming years. The article presents a thought-provoking viewpoint: The current market pricing for ByteDance seems overly conservative. According to Caplight's data, ByteDance's valuation in the secondary private market is approximately $330 billion. Although investors gave a valuation of $480 billion in November last year, it is still "cheaper" compared to Meta (the parent company of Facebook). You should know that Meta's enterprise value is as high as $1.6 trillion, and these two companies have similar social media businesses with annual revenues approaching the $200 billion mark. The article contends that ByteDance's stock price also appears to be severely undervalued. Especially considering that ByteDance has already established a leading position in the AI field in China, this "undervaluation" is particularly striking. As the article states, apart from the advertising business, its AI technology is driving the expansion of the cloud business and even beginning to snatch customers away from its larger competitor Alibaba. Valuation inversion: The overlooked growth multiple To understand why ByteDance is considered "cheap", one needs to look at the specific financial data. Although there are no latest public financial reports available, according to Reuters, in the second quarter of 2025, ByteDance's revenue increased by 25% to $48 billion. This growth rate exceeded that of Meta, which grew by 22% during the same period. If this trend continues throughout the year, ByteDance's total revenue for 2025 will approach $200 billion. Here comes an interesting math problem: If we assume that ByteDance maintains the same growth rate as Meta in 2026, then based on the current valuation, ByteDance's price-to-sales ratio (the ratio of stock price to sales) is less than twice the expected sales in 2026. In contrast, Meta's transaction price is 7 times its expected sales for the next year. Even for Pinterest, a slower-growing social media and advertising company, the valuation multiple is close to 4 times. Let's take a look at another comparable entity - Tencent, a Chinese internet giant that also earns money through digital advertising. John Choi, a stock analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets in Hong Kong, pointed out that Tencent's transaction price is 6.4 times its estimated sales for the next year. Choi stated bluntly in the article: I believe ByteDance has reaped greater benefits in AI investment than its peers, including Tencent. This indicates that the market may not have fully priced in ByteDance's potential in the AI field. Profit and Investment: The Two Sides of a Coin Of course, the valuation gap between ByteDance and Meta can be partly explained by profit margins. This is also a concern for investors: How efficient is ByteDance in generating profits? The Information reported in April that ByteDance's net profit margin for 2024 was 21%, while Meta's net profit margin for the same year was close to 38%. This disparity is objectively present. Moreover, the executives of both companies have warned investors that as they make large-scale investments in AI, the profit margins may decline. However, this investment seems not to have hindered ByteDance's astonishing growth in absolute profits. Bloomberg recently reported that ByteDance's profits in 2025 are expected to reach 50 billion US dollars, an increase of 51% compared to 2024. This is similar to two racing cars. One has a slightly higher fuel consumption (cost), but its acceleration performance (profit growth rate) is increasing at an astonishing rate. In this situation, simply focusing on the current fuel consumption while ignoring its future speed potential is clearly unwise. TikTok Boots Landing: The Premium from Certainty In the past few years, one of the reasons for ByteDance's reduced valuation was the "black swan" of regulatory issues faced by TikTok in the United States. This not only made the future of this super app uncertain, but also hindered the company's listing process. However, the situation has undergone a fundamental reversal. According to CCTV News, under the agreement outlined by the Trump administration in September, ByteDance signed a deal to sell 80.1% of its US data security business to an investor consortium consisting of Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Abu Dhabi investment company MGX. This transaction enabled the company to comply with a legal requirement in 2024, which stipulated that ByteDance must reduce its ownership of the TikTok US division to below 20%, thus lifting the five-year US ban threat. This return of regulatory certainty is of immense value. A ByteDance investor stated that eliminating regulatory uncertainty would make advertisers more willing to spend money on TikTok, and businesses would also be more inclined to conduct sales through TikTok Shop. Considering that TikTok has 170 million monthly active users in the United States, its growth potential remains huge. Just as analyst John Choi has pointed out, From the perspective of advertisers outside China, one of the most important factors is stability and visibility. Therefore, completing the US deal should be of great benefit to ByteDance. The sleeping giant is about to awaken? For investors, the key question now is: After establishing the joint venture, how much money can ByteDance earn from TikTok? This is a complex arithmetic problem. TikTok CEO Zhou Shuzhi stated that the joint venture will be responsible for data protection and algorithm security, but the advertising and e-commerce businesses still belong to ByteDance. ByteDance needs to share the revenue with the joint venture, and the joint venture will pay algorithm usage fees to ByteDance, but at the same time, ByteDance also bears the expensive cost of data security. Although the details of the revenue sharing are still unclear, this does not prevent the article from reaching its core conclusion: Even with these unknown factors, ByteDance's relatively low valuation still makes it a highly sought-after target in the initial public offering. Overall, the author predicts that with the removal of regulatory obstacles in the United States, ByteDance's IPO may have already been put on the agenda. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market carries risks and investment should be made with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the specific investment goals, financial situation or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether the opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular circumstances. Any investment made based on this information is at your own risk.

Morgan Asset Management predicts that Chinese technology stocks will continue to benefit from technological breakthroughs. As China steps up efforts to cultivate more innovative enterprises like DeepSeek, investors can expect to witness more milestone developments. The institution believes that the growth in AI spending and policy support will be key catalysts driving the sector's upward trend. According to the latest report from Bloomberg, the company's global market strategist Raisah Rasid stated at a media event in Singapore that there are still numerous opportunities in the Chinese technology sector. Investors will witness more advancements in robotic technology and more DeepSeek moments. So far this year, the index measuring Chinese mainland technology stocks has risen by approximately 12%, outperforming similar indices in Hong Kong and the United States. Investors have continued to pour into this sector. From chips to humanoid robots and to commercial rockets, the daily breakthroughs in China's technology sector are fueling a surge in market enthusiasm. The numerous planned stock listings are also adding momentum to the market. Rasid pointed out that the capital expenditure of China's top cloud service providers last year was approximately 50 billion US dollars, while that of their American competitors reached 350 billion US dollars. This indicates that there is still considerable room for further increase in capital expenditure by Chinese enterprises. Looking to the future, Morgan Asset Management believes that Chinese technology companies will not only benefit from the government's efforts to accelerate industrial development, but also may gain from the potential relaxation of US chip export restrictions. From the demand side, China is integrating artificial intelligence into a wide range of industries such as food and hotels, creating more application scenarios for technology companies. The disparity in capital expenditures implies potential for growth. There is a significant gap in capital expenditure in the field of artificial intelligence between Chinese and American technology enterprises. Rasid pointed out that the capital expenditure of China's top cloud service providers last year was approximately 50 billion US dollars, which was only about one seventh of the 350 billion US dollars spent by their American counterparts. This gap leaves ample room for Chinese enterprises to increase their investment in the future, and the growth in capital expenditure will, in turn, drive technological progress. From the demand side, China is integrating artificial intelligence technology into various traditional industries such as food and hotels. Additionally, the government's efforts to accelerate industrial development and the potential relaxation of US chip export restrictions will bring additional benefits to Chinese technology enterprises. The combination of these factors forms the fundamental basis for the sustained rise of this sector. Dual drive by policies and innovation Morgan Asset Management emphasizes that a more favorable policy environment will be one of the key catalysts driving China's technology stocks. China is stepping up efforts to create more innovative enterprises like DeepSeek, with technological breakthroughs emerging in various fields ranging from chips to humanoid robots and commercial rockets. The market performance so far this year has confirmed this trend. The index measuring Chinese mainland technology stocks has risen by approximately 12%, outperforming similar indices in Hong Kong and the United States. A large number of planned new share listings have also injected new vitality into the market. Rasid said that investors will witness more and more advancements in robot technology and breakthrough moments, and the innovative momentum in China's technology sector is still accelerating. Risk Warning and Disclaimer Clause The market carries risks and investment should be made with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the specific investment goals, financial situation or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether the opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular circumstances. Any investment made based on this information is at your own risk.

Amazon is negotiating with suppliers to reduce prices, with the intention of reversing the concessions it made last year to deal with Trump's tariffs. On January 14th, according to the Financial Times of the UK, several advisors who were negotiating on behalf of brands and suppliers disclosed that the e-commerce giant Amazon was seeking price reductions from suppliers, with the reduction ranging from single digits to as high as 30%. The report, citing an insider source, stated that in order to complete the deal before the Supreme Court's ruling on the legality of US trade tariffs this week, Amazon not only advanced the negotiations with some suppliers by several weeks, but in some cases even attempted to impose a deadline of January 1st. Amazon stated in a statement that its annual supplier negotiation cycle has not changed and there are no strict negotiation deadlines. The company said that after the tariff rate was lowered in October last year, it has begun negotiations with some suppliers. Last year, Amazon agreed to increase the purchase prices of certain goods affected by tariffs in exchange for suppliers guaranteeing a minimum profit margin. However, as Trump withdrew some tariffs and reached a series of trade agreements, the impact of tariffs was not as severe as initially feared. Now, Amazon is attempting to reverse these concessions. The rush before the Supreme Court's ruling The US Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on whether the Trump administration has the authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The Financial Times of the UK reported, citing a supplier consultant, that although Amazon's supply chain managers did not explicitly mention this case during the negotiations, their move to accelerate the progress of the talks was regarded as an attempt to finalize the agreement before the ruling. Martin Heubel, the consultant who helps suppliers negotiate with Amazon, said: Amazon's claim is that the worst-case scenario that the brand was worried about did not occur. After Trump withdrew some tariffs and signed several trade agreements, the impact of tariffs did indeed ease. However, analysts believe that if the US Supreme Court rejects the current tariffs, Trump might invoke other laws to initiate a new round of tariffs. Last year, in response to the large-scale tariffs launched by Trump in April, this largest e-commerce platform made a compromise and agreed to increase the purchase prices of goods affected by the tariffs. Kara Babb, a former Amazon supplier manager and current consultant, pointed out: Amazon is taking aggressive measures in an attempt to recover all the lost profits. It is reported that Amazon is attempting to transfer the risk of future trade fluctuations to its suppliers, asking them to agree to bear the responsibility for the tariffs on the goods they sell. Amazon stated that if suppliers agree to bear the tariffs and increase marketing expenditures, a smaller reduction in price can be accepted. The suppliers are under pressure to increase profits. The brand and its advisors believe that Amazon's stance in the latest negotiations poses a threat to the profitability of the product line, as it has failed to adequately consider the increase in commodity costs resulting from supply chain disruptions and rising costs of raw materials and labor. Amazon operates its extensive e-commerce business under both direct sales and third-party retailer models. The sales of third-party sellers account for over 60% of the platform's total sales. Amazon responded as follows: We work closely with our suppliers to understand all the cost pressures they are facing - tariffs, supply chains, raw materials, labor - and incorporate these factors into our negotiation considerations. It is worth noting that Amazon did not join the lawsuits filed by businesses and interest groups against the tariff measures, including a class-action lawsuit initiated by over 1,000 retailers such as Costco, aimed at recovering the tariffs that had been paid. Risk Warning and Disclaimer Clause The market carries risks and investment should be made with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the specific investment goals, financial situation or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether the opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular circumstances. Any investment made based on this information is at your own risk.

As the low-cost economy sweeps across the global capital market, a "unicorn" is quietly adjusting its take-off posture. Recently, the news about Huiting's planned IPO in Hong Kong has spread rapidly in the market. It is reported that the company has hired Morgan Stanley and Morgan Dresdner as joint underwriters and has secretly submitted an application for listing. It is expected to complete the listing within this year at the earliest. Regarding this, Huiting did not comment to Wall Street Journal but did not deny it either. The so-called "secret filing" is a system of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Some investors pointed out that last year, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange launched the "Special Technology and Biotech Line", which facilitated the listing applications of specialized technology companies and biotech companies. These companies were allowed to submit their listing applications in a confidential manner, with the disclosure timing postponed until later stages and made public only then to protect research and development plans and business secrets. Hu Tian chose to file for an IPO secretly at this time. The reason behind this is the confrontation between the approaching technology monetization cycle and the huge investment made by the company. Developing flying cars is a typical capital-intensive project. From the development of the flight control system, the design of power redundancy, to the most crucial airworthiness certification, every step requires continuous capital injection. Although Xiaopeng Auto has provided it with a strong supply chain and manufacturing capabilities as a guarantee, in the current context where the new energy vehicle industry is experiencing a fierce price war and profit margins are being squeezed, it is difficult to support Huiting's such large-scale expansion through external financing. Therefore, seeking independent financing through an IPO not only can alleviate its own financial pressure, but is also more importantly, prepare for the subsequent process of truly growing into an industry unicorn. An industry insider informed Wall Street Journal that globally, companies such as Joby Aviation, Archer, and Ehang Intelligent have already gone public on the stock market. As the largest flying car company in Asia, if Xiangpeng Huitian can complete its IPO this year, it will establish a rare "leading position in the low-altitude economy" in the Hong Kong stock market sector. This "first stock" mentality dividend often implies a higher valuation premium. At the product strategy level, Xiangpeng Huitian has demonstrated a unique approach that distinguishes it from traditional airlines. Currently, Huiting's first move is the split-type flying car "Land Aircraft Carrier", and its flying component (X3-F) is currently in the crucial stage of applying for a type certification. Huiting's thinking is rather pragmatic. They have realized that pure eVTOLs face the practical pain points of short range and inability to connect with ground transportation. Therefore, the "land aircraft carrier" is designed as a "car with aircraft", using the hull of the mother ship to provide mobile charging for the flying body, thus solving the energy replenishment anxiety for flying in the wild; at the same time, users can drive the "aircraft carrier" to the suburbs like driving an ordinary car, and then release the flying body for experience, thereby lowering the usage threshold for users. Currently, the TC application for X3-F is the core strategic focus of Huiting. Once approved, it will signify that this technical path has received legal recognition from the regulatory authorities, and this will be the final key ticket to commercialization. If "land aircraft carrier" represents a compromise for the present, then the A868, the first all-tiltrotor flying car unveiled last November, is the ultimate definition of the future for Huiting. The tiltrotor technology is widely regarded as the "crown jewel" in the eVTOL field. It combines the vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of helicopters with the high-speed cruising capabilities of fixed-wing aircraft. This product is targeted at longer-distance and more complex urban air transportation scenarios in the future. Beyond the product itself, when discussing the industry leadership position, the outside world often tends to overlook Huiting's key advantage - the manufacturing capabilities derived from the automotive industry. The traditional aviation industry is often characterized by "handcrafted workshop-style" production, which is costly and inefficient. However, the core logic of Xiongpeng Huitian is to treat flying cars as regular cars for manufacturing. According to Huitian, their products have a high degree of supply chain reuse in aspects such as the three-electric system, intelligent cabin, and components, compared to Xiongpeng Automobiles. This means that Huiting can utilize the automotive industry's multi-million-dollar procurement scale to share the cost of aircraft components. While competitors are still struggling to develop a high-priced motor specifically for their products, Huiting might have already directly obtained high-performance motors that have undergone aerospace-level modifications and are suitable for automotive use. Once land-based aircraft carriers enter mass production, the cost curve will drop extremely steeply. Huitian's goal is to achieve this through large-scale manufacturing, bringing the price of flying cars down to the "million-dollar" range or even lower, thereby disrupting the industry's pricing system. The key to becoming a leader lies ultimately in who can first successfully implement the business model. Currently, most mainstream eVTOL companies focus on being operational service providers for businesses or government emergency response markets, emphasizing the "air taxi" concept. However, XPeng Huitian has boldly chosen the "first to C" path. Hu Tian believes that at present, when the low-altitude airspace has not been fully opened up and the urban air traffic regulations are not yet mature, selling it to individual users as a "high-end toy" or an "exploration tool" is a more practical way to generate revenue. "Land aircraft carrier" precisely targets high-net-worth individuals such as off-road enthusiasts and tech enthusiasts. These people are not sensitive to price but have extremely high requirements for experience. To support this strategy, Huiting is actively promoting the construction of flying camps, just like Tesla built its own supercharging stations back then. Huiting is now collaborating with local governments and partners to weave a "flying network". Once users purchase a vehicle and know where they can legally and safely fly, a commercial loop will naturally form. Therefore, the news of Xiaopeng Huiting's IPO in Hong Kong may merely be the tip of the iceberg. In this low-altitude economic competition, Huiting has demonstrated its leading characteristics. It seeks to be the first to go public in terms of capital to establish a valuation anchor point, uses TC evidence and tilt rotor technology to build barriers in terms of technology, and introduces the automotive industry system in terms of manufacturing to launch a reduction-of-dimension attack. However, for the general public, flying cars remain a relatively distant and novel concept. How to convince the public that the "cars" flying above them are absolutely safe, and whether the price can be reduced to a level that can attract the mainstream market, these are all issues that the entire industry needs to gradually solve over a long period of time and with a large amount of investment. Although challenges still exist, if the subsequent support from the capital market is available and the "land aircraft" is successfully delivered this year, Huiting may be able to solve the problem of aircraft scale production and become the industry leader in defining this new category of "flying cars". Risk Warning and Disclaimer Clause The market carries risks and investment should be made with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the specific investment goals, financial situation or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether the opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment made based on this information is at your own risk.

On Monday, according to media reports citing informed sources, Qiangnao Technology, one of the "Six Little Dragons" in Hangzhou and a brain-computer interface unicorn, has submitted a confidential application for an IPO in Hong Kong. The company is cooperating with CICC and UBS to advance the stock offering, and the fundraising scale may reach hundreds of millions of US dollars. This IPO application comes at a time when Qiangnao Technology has completed a new round of financing. A previous article by Wall Street Journal stated that the company has recently completed a financing round of approximately 2 billion yuan, jointly invested by top financial capital and industry giants such as Lens Technology. This amount has set the second-largest global financing record in this field after Neuralink. Market insiders point out that this marks that brain-computer interface technology has crossed the laboratory stage and is now receiving strong endorsement from the capital market and accelerating towards commercialization. Recently, the field of brain-computer interfaces has seen a significant increase in popularity, mainly catalyzed by the latest developments of Neuralink, the industry leader. Musk announced in January that Neuralink would start mass production in 2026, which directly drove the continuous rise of related concept stocks such as Beiyikang and Xiangyu Medical after the market opened in 2026. As one of the very few enterprises that have achieved large-scale mass production of their products, the listing process of Qiangnao Technology is regarded as a key indicator of the commercial feasibility of this technology. This submission of the application also indicates that the capitalization process of the highly anticipated "Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou" is accelerating. As companies like Qiangnao Technology and Qunhe Technology successively advance their preparations for listing, the market valuation and liquidity prospects of this batch of representative technology start-ups will become the focus of investors' attention. Financing records and commercialization implementation Before submitting its listing application, Qiangnao Technology had established its leading position in the field of non-invasive brain-computer interfaces. Its recently completed financing of approximately 2 billion yuan was co-led by IDG Capital and Walden International, the latter of which was led by Intel Corp. Founded by Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan. The participation of Lens Technology has further strengthened the expectation of its industrial chain synergy. Qiangnao Technology was founded in 2015 by Han Bicheng, a 39-year-old brain science doctor from Hangzhou who is still studying at the Harvard Brain Science Center. Unlike Neuralink's invasive approach, the company focuses on non-invasive technology, providing solutions by establishing signal pathways between the brain and external devices. The company has currently obtained the FDA certification in the United States and the CE certification in Europe. Its core product, the "Super Sensor", can detect electroencephalogram (EEG) information without craniotomy and is used to assist in the rehabilitation of the disabled and the treatment of brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and autism. Han Bicheng once said that within the next five to ten years, he plans to help one million people with physical disabilities regain their freedom of movement. According to data from CCID Consulting Co., China's brain-computer interface industry is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of 20% in the coming years. As one of the few players that have achieved large-scale production of its products, Qiangnao Technology ranks among the top in the industry in terms of R&D investment and is regarded as a local force competing with American companies in this field. Brain-computer interface technology has become a new frontier in technological competition. Neuralink, a rival of Qiangnao Technology, holds a leading position in the field of implantable chips. Its latest developments have become the direct trigger for the recent market trend. Musk previously announced that Neuralink would start mass production of its devices in 2026 and expressed confidence in helping paralyzed people regain their full body functions. These two major pieces of information have verified the technical feasibility of the industry, significantly raising market expectations for brain-computer interfaces to move from scientific research to daily life. Although Qiangnao Technology adopts a non-invasive technical route, it has also benefited from the overall increase in industry attention. Insiders said that Qiangnao Technology's IPO this time aims to raise funds to further compete with US rivals such as Neuralink and expand its influence in the global market. The "Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou" are racing to go public As Qiangnao Technology takes its steps towards going public, the capitalization paths of the "Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou" (referring to six well-known new-generation technology enterprises in Hangzhou, including DeepSeek, etc.) are becoming increasingly clear, showing signs of acceleration. Manycore Tech: The fastest progressing company, has officially submitted its IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The prospectus shows that the company's revenue in the first half of 2025 was 399 million yuan, an increase of 9% year-on-year, and it achieved a turnaround from loss to profit, with an adjusted net profit of 17.83 million yuan. The gross profit margin will further increase to 82.1% in the first half of 2025. Unitree Technology: It has completed its listing tutoring and disclosed on overseas social media platforms that it is actively advancing its IPO preparations. DeepBlue: It just submitted the tutoring materials to the securities regulatory bureau on December 23rd. The tutoring institution is CITIC Securities. It plans to complete the tutoring in the second quarter of 2026 and is expected to take the first step in the A-share application next year. Other enterprises: At present, DeepSeek and Game Science have not disclosed any clear signals of capitalization. So far, four of the "Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou" have clarified their IPO directions or entered the substantive operation stage, covering both the Hong Kong and A-share markets. This indicates that hard-tech enterprises in the region are collectively seeking financial support from the secondary market. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market involves risks. Please invest with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the individual user's specific investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment made based on this is at your own risk.

Renowned venture capitalist Marc Andreessen once said in 2011 that "software is devouring the world", and by 2026, it seems that the Silicon Valley giants are about to "swallow up" AI startups. In the past few years, the AI startup boom has given rise to nearly 40,000 companies. But now, the real economic laws are beginning to take effect, and the entire industry is undergoing a major reshuffle. On January 8th, Parmy Olson, a Bloomberg columnist specializing in the technology sector, published a new article pointing out that two deals hastily concluded before the New Year revealed the latest strategies of the giants: on the one hand, they circumvented antitrust reviews through "recruitment and licensing" transactions, thereby "implicitly" acquiring competitors in the European and American markets; On the other hand, it directly turns its attention to high-quality AI assets on a global scale. The most typical case is the $20 billion "non-exclusive licensing agreement" that NVIDIA reached with the chip startup Groq on December 24th. This was actually a "backdoor acquisition" aimed at obtaining technology and talent. Meanwhile, Meta acquired the AI startup Manus for approximately $2 billion in December. This deal highlights the intention of Silicon Valley giants to eliminate potential competition and integrate advanced technologies through mergers and acquisitions. As market confidence in AI startups wavers, large tech companies are seizing this opportunity to acquire key talents and intellectual property at lower costs during the "big sales" of startups. Parmy Olson believes that this trend indicates that the "Darwinian" survival of the fittest is accelerating. Although American companies' spending on generative AI software soared to 37 billion US dollars in 2025, driven by the pressure of return on investment (ROI), only a few winners can survive, while a large number of homogeneous weak players will be swallowed up by the giants. This integration will help tech giants weather the market storm safely and further consolidate their dominant position in the AI field. Business logic regression: From Blind Expansion to survival of the fittest In the past few years, the financing boom in the AI field has given rise to a large amount of homogeneous competition. Data from Menlo Ventures shows that American companies will spend $37 billion on generative AI software in 2025, far exceeding the $11.5 billion in the previous year. However, this huge expenditure is scattered across a wide variety of tools, and the market is highly fragmented. Parmy Olson believes that as corporate clients are under pressure to demonstrate substantial investment returns, the market will undergo intense consolidation in 2026. This model emerged in the cloud software industry from 2020 to 2021, when a large number of similar enterprises eventually triggered a wave of private equity-driven acquisitions. Nowadays, the same scenario is unfolding in the AI field: when dozens of start-ups attempt to address the same pain point and only two or three can capture market share in the end, the remaining weak players will inevitably become acquisition targets. For tech giants, this is precisely the perfect opportunity to harvest technology and talent at low prices. "Quasi-merger and acquisition" game: Conducting acquisitions under the guise of licensing To bypass the obstacles from regulatory authorities, the Silicon Valley giants have designed a complex transaction structure. The deal between NVIDIA and Groq is a typical case: Nvidia paid a fee to obtain technology licensing and integrated Groq's chip design into future products, while some of Groq's senior executives joined NVIDIA. Parmy Olson believes that this operation technically avoids direct contact with the release of antitrust reviews, but essentially achieves the goal of eliminating potential competitors and obtaining core assets. As early as 2024, Microsoft took the lead by acquiring the CEO and core team of the AI startup Inflection with a $650 million licensing deal. Subsequently, Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, reached a similar $2.7 billion deal with Character.AI, and Amazon also took over the startup Adept through an "acquisitive recruitment" approach. Entering 2025, Google once again spent 2.4 billion US dollars to acquire the assets and talents of the AI code startup Windsurf. Although the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice are investigating these "seemingly acquisition" deals, this "quasi-merger and acquisition" model is expected to continue to prevail after President Trump signed an executive order in December 2025, sending a signal that antitrust enforcement may soften. Hunting the World: The Inevitable Destination for Start-ups? The merger and acquisition landscape of the global technology industry is undergoing changes. Multinational tech giants are beginning to turn their attention to innovative enterprises with a more global background. Industry insiders point out that innovation is no longer confined to specific regions, and promising technology companies are emerging all over the world. Meanwhile, the new generation of AI entrepreneurs have demonstrated a broader international perspective. They often have a cross-cultural background and are more familiar with global market rules and business environments. Many start-ups adopt a global layout from the very beginning, such as setting up their headquarters in neutral regions, which creates favorable conditions for being acquired by global platforms in the future. Parmy Olson analyzed that, theoretically speaking, some companies with technological advantages in specific fields, such as technology enterprises that develop large language models, may become potential supplementary targets for large technology groups. However, the reality is that the top echelon of the global technology industry has become relatively stable. Even the currently leading AI startups find it difficult to shake the market dominance of the existing tech giants in the short term. At the current stage of industry development, the existing giants that control resources, ecosystems and markets still play a leading role in integration and mergers and acquisitions. After three years of experimentation and exploration, enterprise customers are gradually concentrating their budgets on a few core suppliers. As the market trend shifts, a large number of troubled start-ups around the world will have to seek a way out, and the vested interests in Silicon Valley are ready to enjoy this "feast". For investors, this means that the alpha returns of the market will further concentrate on leading technology stocks, while the investment risks of start-ups will significantly increase. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market involves risks. Please invest with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the individual user's specific investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment made based on this is at your own risk.

As one of the few Chinese enterprises with the ability to design high-performance AI accelerators, Kunlun Chip, the AI chip division under Baidu, is accelerating its capitalization process. According to informed sources who told Bloomberg, Kunlun Chip has selected an investment banking team to prepare for its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, with a target fundraising scale of up to 2 billion US dollars. This move not only highlights the market's strong interest in the field of artificial intelligence infrastructure, but also indicates that the pace of independence of Chinese tech giants in key hardware areas is accelerating. A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Kunlun Chip has hired China International Capital Corporation Limited, CITIC Securities and Huatai Securities as the lead banks for its IPO. In addition, CITIC Securities International also participated in the relevant work of this issuance. In response to the above news, a spokesperson for Baidu did not reply to a request for comment. Citic Securities, China International Capital Corporation and Huatai Securities also declined to comment, while CITIC Securities declined to comment. On January 2nd of this year, Baidu officially confirmed that Kunlun Chip had secretly submitted an IPO application last week. Although the specific issuance scale and other details are still under discussion and may change with market conditions, according to informed sources, the fundraising amount is expected to be between 1 billion and 2 billion US dollars. This IPO comes at a time when investors' demand for the artificial intelligence sector is high. As China continues to promote self-reliance and self-strengthening in science and technology, AI-related enterprises, which are regarded as strategic industries, are flocking to list in Hong Kong to take advantage of the dividends of the capital market. Recently, Shanghai Bitmain Technology, an AI chip design company, saw its stock price surge by 76% in its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, the first-day gains of related enterprises listed on the Chinese mainland at the end of last year even reached triple digits. These market performances provide a positive valuation reference for the listing of Kunlun Chip. A scarce AI computing power target The main business of Kunlun Chip involves providing core chip support for data center servers. According to Baidu's public statement, Kunlun Chip is one of the few companies in China capable of designing high-performance accelerators, which are crucial for maintaining and enhancing the computing power of artificial intelligence. After the secret listing, the official listing process of Kunlun Chip will become the focus of market attention. The application of its products in data center servers is directly related to the construction of the computing power infrastructure for Baidu and potential customers in the training and inference of AI large models. Its performance scale ranks among the top in domestic products, and its shipment volume is expected to rank second in 2024 As a shareholder, Baidu's large-scale cluster deployment has provided crucial support for Kunlun Chip, and at the same time, Kunlun Chip has also made substantial progress in expanding external orders. According to the data disclosed by Kunlun Chip, Kunlun Chip has completed large-scale deployment in key industries such as the Internet, finance, energy and power, and telecommunications operators. Currently, a domestic computing power cluster with 32,000 cards has been implemented. Kunlun Chip also won a server purchase order worth nearly 1 billion yuan from China Mobile, and China Merchants Bank is also one of its major clients. According to Tencent Technology, a research summary previously stated that Kunlun Chip's full-year revenue in 2025 is expected to be around 5 billion yuan, a significant increase from 2 billion yuan in 2024. In contrast, Cambricon, a leading domestic AI chip manufacturer, achieved a revenue of 2.881 billion yuan in the first half of 2025 and is expected to reach 5 to 7 billion yuan for the full year. The full-year revenues of the newly listed Moore Threads and Muxi in 2025 are expected to range from 1.218 billion yuan to 1.498 billion yuan and from 1.50 billion yuan to 1.98 billion yuan respectively. However, the report, citing data obtained from the industry, said that the final revenue for the full year might be lower than this expectation, but still far exceed the 2 billion yuan in 2024. The report quoted a person close to Kunlun Chip as saying: It should not be a problem to rank among the top three domestic products in terms of volume. According to IDC data, in 2024, the shipment volume of Kunlun chips ranked second in the industry. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market involves risks. Please invest with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the individual user's specific investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment made based on this is at your own risk.

AMD is attempting to further challenge Nvidia's monopoly in the AI hardware market by launching a new chip, MI440X, specifically targeted at enterprise data centers. This move is aimed at strengthening AMD's position as a major market challenger. According to Bloomberg, during the keynote speech at the CES trade show, AMD CEO苏姿丰 not only unveiled the MI440X, which is suitable for small enterprise data centers， but also highlighted its top product， the MI455X， and related systems. Su Zhi Feng emphasized that the current pace of AI innovation is astonishing， and the market's demand for computing power has far from been met. This indicates that the company's layout in this field has just begun. This latest move not only enriches AMD's product portfolio, but also directly addresses the investors' expectations for it to expand its market share and gain a share from NVIDIA's multi-billion-dollar orders. Over the past few years, AMD has successfully created billions of dollars of new business through AI chips. This release aims to maintain this growth momentum and showcase the differentiation competitiveness of its products to investors. Furthermore, OpenAI's co-founder Greg Brockman attended to support the partnership between the two parties. Su Zifeng also announced the upcoming MI500 series processors in 2027, promising a significant performance leap and demonstrating the company's confidence in its future technology roadmap. Target the enterprise-level and high-performance markets AMD is adding a new member, MI440X, to its existing product line, aiming to penetrate the enterprise market. This chip is specifically designed for smaller enterprise data centers, allowing customers to deploy local hardware within their own facilities and retain data. It can be adapted to existing compact computers. This provides new options for enterprises that have higher requirements for data privacy and do not fully rely on large cloud services. Meanwhile, Su Zifeng claimed that the system based on the top-level chip MI455X represents a leap in capability. The Helios system, designed based on MI455X and the new Venice central processor, is expected to be launched later this year. This high-end combination is aimed at meeting the most demanding computing needs and directly competes with the highest standards in the industry. Challenge Nvidia's market dominance The market generally regards AMD as the closest competitor to Nvidia in the field of AI chips. Investors have pushed up AMD's stock price, eager to see it make greater progress in securing the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of orders that Nvidia has monopolized, in order to justify its high valuation. Su Zifeng echoed the views of American tech executives, including those from NVIDIA, stating that the AI wave will continue due to the benefits it brings and the huge demand for computing power. Su Zifeng said: "The computing power we currently have is far from sufficient to meet our needs. The pace and speed of AI innovation in the past few years have been incredibly rapid. We are just at the beginning." OpenAI booth: Preview of a 1,000-fold performance boost in 2027 To demonstrate the support of the ecosystem, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and Su Zifeng took the stage together, discussing their partnership with AMD and the future system deployment plans. During the conversation, both parties expressed a shared belief that future economic growth will be closely linked to the availability of AI resources. Regarding the long-term plan, Su Zifeng previewed the MI500 series processors that will be launched in 2027. According to Su Zifeng, the performance of this series of products will be 1,000 times that of the MI300 series first launched in 2023. This aggressive technology roadmap aims to assure the market that AMD will maintain its continuous innovation ability in the long-term competition. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market carries risks and investment should be made with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the specific investment goals, financial situation or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether the opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment made based on this information is at your own risk.

On January 5th, according to media reports, Chinese artificial intelligence startup MiniMax plans to set the price of its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) at the upper end of the promotion range. This move reflects that investors' enthusiasm for Chinese tech startups is on the rise, and the market's interest in this emerging field remains strong. According to informed sources who told Bloomberg, the Shanghai-based company may sell its shares at a price of HK $165 per share. Given the strong subscription demand, the company plans to stop accepting orders from institutional investors at 5 p.m. local time on Monday (January 5th), which is one day earlier than originally planned. It is reported that MiniMax's IPO has attracted subscription demands several times the issuance volume. The investor lineup includes sovereign wealth funds and global Long-only funds. If priced at the high end of the suggested retail price range, MiniMax will raise at least 4.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (approximately 538 million US dollars). The company is expected to be officially listed and traded this Friday (January 9th). As a company backed by Alibaba Group and the ABU Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund, MiniMax is one of the first generative AI companies to go public in China following the ChatGPT craze and is attempting to challenge American rivals such as OpenAI in the increasingly fierce global competition. Valuation level and cornerstone investor lineup According to an article by Wall Street Journal, based on the information in the prospectus, MiniMax plans to issue approximately 25.39 million shares in this IPO, with the original pricing range set at HK $151 to HK $165 per share. If it is ultimately set at the high end of HK $165, without considering the exercise of the issue volume adjustment right and the over-allotment option, its issue valuation will be between HK $46.123 billion and HK $50.399 billion. This issuance has attracted a star-studded lineup of cornerstone investors. A total of 14 cornerstone investors participated in the subscription, with a total amount of approximately HK $2.723 billion. Among them are international Asset management giants such as Aspex, Eastspring, and Mirae Asset, as well as well-known institutions such as Alibaba and E Fund. This investor portfolio encompasses international long-term capital, leading technology companies and industrial strategic capital. Global funds that only go long usually not only have strict requirements for their investment targets but also tend to hold them for the long term. Their participation indicates the market's recognition of MiniMax's business model and self-sustaining ability. Previously, the company has received investment support from institutions such as MiHoYo, Tencent, Sequoia, IDG, and Hillhouse Capital. Business growth and capital efficiency At the business level, MiniMax has demonstrated a relatively fast growth rate and global layout capabilities. As of September 2025, the company has over 212 million individual users in more than 200 countries and regions. In the first nine months of 2025, the company's revenue increased by more than 170% year-on-year. Among them, the contribution of overseas market revenue exceeded 70%, indicating that it has entered the international market with a higher willingness to pay. It is worth noting that MiniMax has maintained a relatively high efficiency in capital utilization. The prospectus shows that since its establishment in early 2022, the company has invested approximately 500 million US dollars in total and completed the research and development layout of full-modal models ranging from text, voice to video. Based on its self-developed models, the company has launched AI-native products such as Conch AI, Starfield, and Talkie. Market environment and industry prospects The launch of MiniMax will kick off a busy start for the Hong Kong IPO market. This month, approximately 11 companies plan to go public in Hong Kong, with the total amount of funds raised possibly reaching as high as 4.1 billion US dollars. In the same week as MiniMax, its main competitor, Zhipu, was also launched. At the macro level, China's support for its domestic AI industry is encouraging enterprises to accelerate expansion and financing. According to a report by UNCTAD, the global AI market size is expected to soar from 189 billion US dollars in 2023 to 4.8 trillion US dollars in 2033. Facing a huge market increment and competition from Silicon Valley giants such as Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, Chinese enterprises like MiniMax are seeking further resource support through the capital market to consolidate their industry positions. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market involves risks. Please invest with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the individual user's specific investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment made based on this is at your own risk.

On January 4th, NetEase Technology, citing informed sources, reported that the green channel for UShu Technology's A-share listing was halted. The so-called IPO green channel refers to a priority review and rapid release listing channel opened for specific types of enterprises, significantly shortening the cycle from application to listing for enterprises. So far, this news has not been confirmed by Ushu Technology. It is worth mentioning that as early as mid-December 2025, the market had already spread this news. As 2025 comes to an end, the fact that the prospectus of Ushu Technology has not yet been posted online to some extent confirms the authenticity of this news. Judging from the tuition-acceptance timeline of other IPO projects, the IPO progress of Ushu Technology has indeed not been smooth. On December 23, 2025, after the sponsor institution, CICC, submitted the report on the completion of the IPO tutoring work for Blue Arrow Space to the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau, its IPO application was accepted, with an interval of only one week. Last September, Ushu Technology announced on a foreign social media platform that the expected time for submitting its listing application was from October to December 2025. Since then, the IPO tutoring of Yushu Technology has indeed been promoted. The sponsor institution, CITIC Securities, submitted the completion report of the IPO tutoring work to the local securities regulatory bureau as early as November 15, 2025. However, since then, there has been no new progress in its IPO. As of January 4, 2026, the IPO prospectus of Ushu Technology has not yet been posted online, marking that the expected time for submitting the application materials for listing has officially come to nothing. In mid-December, due to rumors that the green channel of Ushu Technology was not progressing smoothly, the market once believed that the green channel mechanism had slowed down. However, according to Xinfeng, the Green Channel mechanism has not been substantially affected so far. The green channel mechanism is still in effect at present. Some of our projects have already gone through this channel. A person from an investment bank in Guangdong told Xin Feng at that time. From the perspective of the industry situation, it is indeed not smooth for robots to go public on the A-share market. In December 2025, JAKA Robotics, known as one of the "Big Three" of collaborative robots along with DJI and Aobo, voluntarily withdrew its application materials for listing on the STAR Market. Some robot companies have adopted A "roundabout" approach, conducting capitalization operations by acquiring A-share listed companies. For instance, Zhiyuan Robotics acquired the controlling stake of A-share company Shangwei New Materials, while UBTECH Robotics, which almost followed A similar path, knocked on the door of A-share company Fenglong Co., LTD. Benefiting from the popularity of robots, Shangwei New Materials claimed the title of "Bull Stock King" in 2025 with a share price increase of 1,820.29%. Whether Ushu Technology can sort out its listing pace again in 2026 and break the current deadlock remains to be seen. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market involves risks. Please invest with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the individual user's specific investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment made based on this is at your own risk.