Alibaba and Baidu opened higher in early trading. As of press time, BABA-W (09988) rose 5.86% to HK$151.7, while BIDU-SW (09888) gained 3.76% to HK$110.5.

On the news front, four sources familiar with the matter reported that Alibaba and Baidu have begun using internally designed chips to train their large AI models, replacing some NVIDIA chips. According to reports, Alibaba has been applying self-developed chips to lightweight AI model training since early this year, while Baidu is experimenting with Kunlun's P800 chips to train the new version of its Ernie large model.

Notably, OpenAI announced a joint effort with Broadcom to design its first self-developed AI chip, while Google is accelerating the deployment of its self-developed TPU into third-party data centers to compete directly with NVIDIA.

China Merchants Securities noted that the rise of AI chip self-development signifies that the AI infrastructure industry is transitioning from "single GPU supply constraints" to "diversified customized chip solutions," with investment logic marginally shifting from hardware monopoly toward ecosystem competition.