Hong Kong shares closed lower on Thursday as the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.86% and the Hang Seng Tech Index declined 1.65%, reflecting a split market mood in which legacy internet platforms softened while semiconductor and large‑model AI plays surged.
Major internet companies led the fall among large caps: Bilibili slid about 2.7%, Kuaishou dropped 2%, Alibaba fell nearly 1%, and Tencent slipped roughly 2.3%. The weakness in these names weighed on investor sentiment for internet and consumer‑facing tech stocks, underscoring lingering concerns over monetisation, advertising cycles and regulatory headwinds that have periodically dented appetite for platform equities.
In contrast, semiconductor and chip‑design companies delivered strong gains. Gigadevice (兆易创新) jumped more than 20%, Biren Technology (壁仞科技) rose close to 10%, and Montage Technology (澜起科技) advanced about 5.6%. The rally in chips appears to be driven by renewed investor focus on hardware suppliers that stand to benefit from a global surge in demand for AI accelerators, memory and bespoke silicon, as well as domestic policy ambitions to strengthen onshore supply chains.
Another prominent theme was a sharp uptick in stocks tied to large language models and generative AI. Zhipu (智谱) soared nearly 30%, while MiniMax climbed roughly 14.6% after recent product and model announcements in China’s fast‑moving AI ecosystem. The moves signal investor appetite for pure‑play AI names and a speculative rotation into firms perceived to be closer to near‑term commercialisation of generative AI services and tools.
The market’s bifurcation — software and platform softness versus hardware and model strength — highlights a broader narrative: investors are recalibrating toward firms that supply the compute and components underpinning AI deployments, while treating traditional consumer internet franchises more cautiously. That rotation raises questions about valuation differentials, the sustainability of exuberance in niche AI names, and how policy, export controls and macro factors will shape earnings momentum for both camps in the months ahead.