China-based tech stocks are surging today, with help from a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) spending after the Financial Times reported the country banned Nvidia (NVDA) chips. Notably, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, a tech-heavy index, is trading at four-year highs. Focusing in on two of these tech giants, e-commerce name Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and search engine staple Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) are both in focus after the company's scored new AI deals.
Alibaba stock was last seen up 2.3% at $165.99, hitting its highest levels in four years, after reports that China Unicom will use AI chips from Alibaba's semiconductor unit, Pingtouge, in a new major data center. BABA has been blasting up the charts, up 37% in the last month, and now sports a 97.8% year-to-date gain.
The shares of Baidu were last seen up 10.2% at $136.37, hitting nearly two-year highs, after a double upgrade from Arete Research to "buy" from "sell." The firm cited AI potential, after the company secured a deal with China Merchants Group earlier this week, and has started using internally designed chips. Up 42.3% since the start of September, BIDU is enjoying a 58.7% lead in 2025.
