China's AI Surge: Baidu and Alibaba Lead ETF Gains Amid Economic Optimism

China's AI Surge Fuels ETF Gains: Baidu, Alibaba Lead The Way - Alibaba Gr Hldgs (NYSE:BABA), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU)

The Hang Seng Index on Monday was affected by worldwide signals, especially the soon-to-be-held U.S. Federal Reserve meeting and the announcement of Hong Kong's February 2025 unemployment rate. The index closed nearly 1% higher. This upbeat action came after China's better-than-forecast retail sales figures. The Hang Seng TECH Index also increased by over 2% on March 14th, and remained largely flat Monday, reflecting the strength in the tech sector. Market sentiment seemed to be cautiously optimistic, waiting for more cues from the Fed and the local unemployment figures. Also Read: Nvidia Faces New AI Challenge As Chinese Start-Up Unveils Framework To Cut Reliance On Its GPUs There's growing investor interest in ETFs tracking Chinese AI stocks as leaders like Baidu BIDU and Alibaba BABA continue to lead the charge in AI technology. Recent news reports showcase that there's a lot of excitement building up China's emerging sector in artificial intelligence. Investors are anticipating a chance to benefit from China's tech success story as it competes on a global scale. China is blowing up thanks to tech, and there's potential for people who invest. For American investors looking to get a piece of China's growing AI industry, ETFs following China's AI sector are becoming an increasingly appealing choice. A few of the prominent ETFs with large exposures to Baidu, Alibaba, and other Chinese AI companies include: KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF KWEB: One of the most popular China-tracking ETFs, KWEB offers exposure to large Chinese internet and technology giants, such as Baidu and Alibaba. iShares MSCI China ETF MCHI: This China ETF covers broad-based AI leaders and other Chinese blue-chip stocks, such as PDD Holdings PDD. Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF PGJ: A U.S.-listed ETF that follows U.S.-listed Chinese firms, some of which are leading companies in AI development like Alibaba and Baidu. Baidu's AI Breakthroughs Baidu brought two new AI models to the market that highlight the company's push for leadership in the space. Over the weekend, Baidu introduced Ernie X1, a reasoning model that competes with DeepSeek R1 but at half the price. Additionally, the company launched Ernie 4.5, a multimodal foundation model that Baidu claims outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4.5 in multiple benchmarks while costing just 1% of its counterpart's price. As part of its AI push, Baidu is releasing its Ernie Bot publicly for the first time ahead of schedule and intends to roll out its most recent models into its product ecosystem, including Baidu Search, China's leading search engine. These steps make Baidu a strong competitor in China's AI competition and could make it more appealing to ETFs with high exposure to the stock. Also Read: What's Going On With Baidu Shares Monday? Alibaba's AI Surge At the same time, Alibaba is also creating ripples in the AI world with its Quark AI assistant, which runs on its in-house Qwen reasoning AI model. Quark has been well-received on Chinese social media and is viewed as a potential "killer app" in the AI space. In a dramatic move to deepen its technology advantage, Alibaba said last month it will invest $52 billion in cloud computing and AI infrastructure over the next three years. This is the biggest computing project ever funded by a single private firm in China and represents the country's overall drive to push the envelope for the top position in AI development. Economic Rebound And AI Investments Drive Market Optimism China's economy is shifting from pandemic-induced austerity to pro-growth policies to bolster the country's crucial sectors. China has set its 2025 GDP growth goal at 5%, with an emphasis on economic stabilization, like reviving the real estate sector after the Evergrande crisis. This revival is evident in the Hang Seng Index, which recorded its first year-on-year gain in 2024 after 2021 and has continued to rally in 2025 with a 23% year-to-date return. The renewed optimism in the market, along with the fervent AI investment, is making China's technology sector more desirable to foreign investors. Read Next: Covered Call ETFs: A Smart Income Play In Volatile Markets Photo: NESPIX/Shuttestock.com BABAAlibaba Group Holding Ltd$147.654.64%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum96.64Growth65.01Quality59.83Value75.93Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewBIDUBaidu Inc$102.248.97%KWEBKraneShares Trust KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF$38.304.13%MCHIiShares MSCI China ETF$58.471.92%PDDPDD Holdings Inc$128.905.19%PGJInvesco Golden Dragon China ETF$31.320.06%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Alibaba HK shares rally amid increased focus on AI By Investing.com

Investing.com-- Alibaba's (NYSE:BABA) Hong Kong shares rose sharply on Tuesday amid increasing optimism over the e-commerce giant's AI prospects, with a report suggesting that it had shifted internal priorities further towards the technology. Alibaba was also caught up in a wave of buying into Chinese shares, with the company expected to benefit greatly from increased stimulus measures from Beijing, particularly those aimed at boosting private spending. Alibaba's quarterly results showed the company was already benefiting from a recovery in its biggest market. Alibaba's Hong Kong shares (HK:9988) jumped 4.9% to HK$142.10 by the midday break, underpinning a 1.8% rise in the Hang Seng index. A report from the Financial Times said that Alibaba, under CEO Eddie Wu, was pivoting heavily into AI. Wu reportedly told all divisions of the company that their 2025 performance will be evaluated largely on how they can leverage AI to spur growth. In addition to its customer-end AI products, Alibaba is also looking at how AI can be applied to improve internal processes, the FT report said, especially in its core ecommerce units Taobao and Tmall. The company- which recently released new versions of its Qwen AI model- is seen as a leader in China's AI industry, and is also among the country's biggest spenders on the technology. Alibaba has benefited greatly from increased interest in China's AI capabilities, especially after the release of DeepSeek earlier this year. The company's HK shares surged nearly 75% in value so far in 2025, and have shown little sign of slowing. Tuesday's gains also came tracking a 10% bump Chinese internet rival Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU), which released new models of its Ernie AI earlier this week.