Investing.com-- Chinese technology stocks have been on a tear since the release of DeepSeek R1 in late-January, as the artificial intelligence model sparked renewed confidence that China was still in the AI race.
Investors piled into heavyweight internet and chipmaking stocks, as DeepSeek R1 appeared to compete with rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT while using older hardware and a fraction of the latter’s budget.
China’s Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index is up 5% since mid-January, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is up nearly 15%. Optimism over AI helped Chinese markets largely rise past trade-related jitters.
UBS analysts noted that past, thematic rallies in Chinese stocks- such as on the 4G, 5G, and cloud computing boom- had lasted between one to two years. Based on that, UBS said markets were less than halfway through the AI rally, although they cautioned that in the past, markets had also been bolstered by strong economic conditions in China.
This is not the case in 2025, given that the Chinese economy is still struggling with disinflation and weak consumer spending.
UBS said China’s A-shares on the CSI300 were more exposed to hardware and software names in the AI rally, while in Hong Kong, this exposure is more concentrated around a group of heavyweight software stocks.
UBS outlined a list of AI-related names, in the hardware, software, internet, automobile, industrials, financials, and healthcare sectors that plan to benefit from AI-related interest.
The investment bank expects software to run up the most, given that several major software and internet firms are still trading well below peaks seen in 2021 and 2023.
Top picks by UBS for China’s AI boom include JCET Group Co Ltd (SS:600584), Will Semiconductor Co Ltd Shanghai (SS:603501), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700), JD Health International Inc (HK:6618), Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI), and CITIC Securities Co Ltd (SS:600030).