ZTE's stock surged 5.04% during intraday trading on Thursday, marking a significant upward movement for the telecommunications equipment company.

The rally was supported by Morgan Stanley's upgrade of ZTE's A-share rating to Equal-weight with a target price of RMB 34.30, providing valuation support. Additionally, ZTE's continued share buyback program, which saw the company repurchase approximately 19.26 million A-shares for RMB 670 million followed by an additional RMB 3.48 million repurchase, signals management's confidence in the company's long-term value.

Further fueling the momentum was news of a strategic collaboration with Tencent Holdings. The two companies are jointly launching a new AI-powered cloud computer product featuring Tencent's native WorkBuddy platform, which integrates Tencent Cloud's computing power and its Hunyuan large language model capabilities. This partnership represents ZTE's strategic pivot from connectivity to a dual-engine strategy of connectivity plus computing power.