Morning News

**Source**: Wall Street Insights

## Market Overview

Mixed U.S. economic data and elevated geopolitical risks dampened the upward momentum of U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back from record highs, while the Nasdaq Composite logged a third consecutive day of gains. Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, closed 2.5% higher, surpassing Apple Inc. in market capitalization for the first time since 2019, as Apple extended its losing streak to six sessions. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index snapped a three-day winning streak, but NVIDIA Corp. rebounded 1%. Refiner Valero Energy Corp. rallied over 3% after former U.S. President Donald Trump stated that up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil would be transferred to the United States. Conversely, major defense contractors tumbled across the board following Trump’s remarks that he would ban dividend payouts and share buybacks for military firms. Northrop Grumman Corp. closed 5.5% lower, Lockheed Martin Corp. fell nearly 5%, and Raytheon Technologies Corp. dropped over 5% in after-hours trading. Trump’s proposal to prohibit institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes in the U.S. sent Blackstone Inc. shares down 5.6%.

Disappointing U.S. ADP nonfarm employment growth (the so-called "mini-nonfarm payrolls") pushed Treasury yields to fresh daily lows. However, yields rebounded after the release of ISM data, with the 2-year U.S. Treasury yield turning positive for the day. Following the publication of the U.S. ISM Services PMI, the U.S. dollar extended its gains, edging closer to a more-than-three-week high. The offshore yuan weakened by over 100 pips intraday, approaching the key 7.0 level and hitting its lowest point of the year. Bitcoin plunged over 3% from its daily peak, breaking below the $91,000 mark, while Ethereum tumbled more than 5% at one point.

The rally in metals fizzled out completely. Precious metals led the sell-off, spearheaded by silver and platinum: COMEX silver futures dropped over 6% intraday, spot platinum slumped nearly 8%, and COMEX gold futures fell more than 1% during the session. Industrial metals retreated across the board: LME copper shed over 2%, pulling back from record highs, and LME nickel plummeted more than 3%. Crude oil prices declined for a second straight day to a three-week low, with WTI crude oil futures falling over 2% intraday.

During the Asian trading session, the Shanghai Composite Index notched a 14th consecutive day of gains, challenging the 4,100-point mark. Memory chip stocks traded actively throughout the day, and the coal sector surged, with coking coal and coke futures hitting the daily limit up. Meanwhile, the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 1.5%, while the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector rallied sharply.

## Key News

- China's foreign exchange reserves rose 0.34% month-on-month in December. The People’s Bank of China has increased its gold holdings for 14 consecutive months.

- Eight Chinese government departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced a plan to accelerate the upgrade of smart terminals, aiming to achieve the safe and reliable supply of core technologies for artificial intelligence in China by 2027.

- The United States will act as a "seller" for Venezuelan oil and demand that Venezuela cut economic ties with China and Russia. China’s Foreign Ministry responded, calling it a **typical act of bullying**.

- Precious metals plunged collectively as the rebalancing of key commodity indices kicked off on Thursday.

- U.S. ADP nonfarm employment increased by 41,000 in December, reversing November’s decline but falling short of market expectations. U.S. JOLTS job openings in November dropped to a more-than-one-year low, falling below the number of unemployed people for the first time in four years, indicating a slowdown in hiring. The U.S. ISM Services PMI came in at 54.4 in December, hitting a more-than-one-year high, reflecting solid demand and a pickup in employment.

- The United States claimed to have seized two oil tankers, one of which was flying the Russian flag. Russia’s Ministry of Transport confirmed that U.S. military personnel boarded the vessel and stated that contact with the ship *Marinera* had been lost. Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of the tanker and demanded that Russian citizens on board be treated humanely. The White House said the crew members on the seized tankers could be brought to the United States to stand trial.

- Donald Trump stated that Venezuela will transfer 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States. The White House announced that the U.S. has started selling Venezuelan oil globally, and the U.S. Energy Secretary said the U.S. will control Venezuela’s oil sales **indefinitely**.

- Donald Trump proposed that the U.S. military budget should reach $1.5 trillion in 2027.

- **Zhipu AI**, known as the "first AI large model stock", saw its Hong Kong public offering oversubscribed by more than 1,000 times. The offer price was set at HK$116.20, and the stock made its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday. Another AI large model unicorn **MiniMax** reportedly priced its Hong Kong IPO at the top end of the indicative range, valuing the company at over HK$46 billion.

- **KunlunXin** is sprinting for its Hong Kong IPO, with plans to raise up to $2 billion, according to sources.

- **Google Gemini TV** made its debut at CES, marking Google’s first move in the "living room revolution".

- Elon Musk echoed TSMC’s concerns about a chip glut, stating that neither power supply nor liquid cooling systems can keep up with the current pace of development. Musk’s 2026 Vision: We are already in an **era of technological singularity**, where AI and robotics are unstoppable. The short term will be marked by volatility and challenges, but the long term will bring an age of prosperity.

## Market Closing Quotes

### European and U.S. Stock Markets

- S&P 500: -0.34% to 6,920.93

- Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.94% to 48,996.08

- Nasdaq Composite: +0.16% to 23,584.275

- Europe STOXX 600 Index: -0.05% to 604.99

### A-Shares

- Shanghai Composite Index: +0.05% to 4,085.77

- Shenzhen Component Index: +0.06% to 14,030.56

- ChiNext Index: +0.31% to 3,329.69

### Bond Market

In late trading, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note stood at around 4.15%, down about 2 basis points intraday. The yield on the 2-year U.S. Treasury note was approximately 3.47%, up roughly 1 basis point on the day.

### Commodities

- WTI Crude Oil Futures (Feb): -2% to $55.99 per barrel

- Brent Crude Oil Futures (Mar): -1.22% to $59.96 per barrel

- COMEX Gold Futures (Feb): -0.75% to $4,462.5 per ounce

- COMEX Silver Futures (Mar): -4.23% to $77.613 per ounce

- LME Copper: -nearly 2.6% to $12,900 per ton

- LME Nickel: -around 3.4% to $17,895 per ton

# Key News Details

## Global Headlines

China's foreign exchange reserves rose by 0.34% month-on-month in December 2025, and the People's Bank of China (PBOC) has increased its gold holdings for 14 consecutive months. As of the end of December 2025, China's foreign exchange reserve stood at $3,357.9 billion, up $11.5 billion or 0.34% from the end of November. PBOC data showed that China's gold reserves at the end of December reached 74.15 million ounces (approximately 2,306.323 tons), an increase of 30,000 ounces (about 0.93 tons) month-on-month.

Eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the *Implementation Opinions on the "AI + Manufacturing" Special Action*, aiming to promote the in-depth application of 3–5 general-purpose large models in the manufacturing sector, develop distinctive and fully covered industry-specific large models, build 100 high-quality datasets for the industrial field, and promote 500 typical application scenarios. The initiative also seeks to foster 2–3 globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises and a number of specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), cultivate a group of enabling application service providers proficient in AI and industry operations, and recognize 1,000 benchmark enterprises. The goal is to establish a world-leading open-source ecosystem, comprehensively enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to the development of artificial intelligence.

The United States will act as a "seller" for Venezuelan oil and demand that Venezuela cut economic ties with China and Russia. China's Foreign Ministry responded, calling it a **typical act of bullying**. According to Shanghai Observer News, the Foreign Ministry stated that Venezuela is a sovereign state with full and permanent sovereignty over its natural resources and all economic activities. The U.S. brazenly resorted to military actions against Venezuela and demanded "America First" in Venezuela's disposal of its own oil resources, which constitutes a typical act of bullying, seriously violates international law, gravely infringes upon Venezuela's sovereignty, and severely undermines the rights of the Venezuelan people. China firmly condemns such acts.

Precious metals plunged collectively as the rebalancing of key commodity indices kicked off on Thursday. Spot gold once broke below the $4,450 per ounce mark, while spot silver saw an intraday drop of over 3%. Spot platinum fell more than 7%, and spot palladium declined by over 5%. The Bloomberg Commodity Index will undergo its annual weight rebalancing from January 8 to 14, with "technical sell-offs" by passive funds triggering liquidity shocks. Silver faces massive selling pressure equivalent to 9% of total positions, and gold has shown bearish reversal signals technically. After the commodity rally, the market is now undergoing a severe liquidity test.

The U.S. "mini-nonfarm payrolls" staged a moderate recovery. December ADP employment increased by 41,000, reversing the decline in November but falling short of growth expectations. The moderate growth in U.S. private-sector employment in December indicates that labor demand remains weak; the increase in ADP private-sector employment fell below economists' forecast of 50,000.

U.S. JOLTS job openings in November dropped to a more-than-one-year low, falling below the number of unemployed people for the first time in four years, signaling a slowdown in hiring. November JOLTS job openings decreased to 7.146 million from the revised 7.45 million in the previous month, significantly lower than expectations. The ratio of job openings per unemployed person fell to 0.9, the lowest level since March 2021 and the first time it has dropped below the 1.0 threshold in four years. The number of hires fell to the lowest level since mid-2024.

The U.S. ISM Services PMI in December came in at 54.4, hitting a more-than-one-year high, reflecting solid demand and a pickup in hiring. The U.S. ISM Services PMI rose 1.8 points to 54.4 in December, the highest level since October 2024. The growth rate of new orders reached the largest level since September 2024, and the recovery in demand drove the healthiest growth in service-sector employment since February. Meanwhile, the pace of price increases slowed to the slowest in nine months.

The United States claimed to have seized two oil tankers in a row, one of which was flying the Russian flag. Russia's Ministry of Transport confirmed that U.S. military personnel boarded the vessel and stated that contact with the *Marinera* had been lost. Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of the tanker and demanded that Russian citizens on board be treated humanely.

The White House said that the crew members on the seized tankers may be brought to the United States to stand trial. White House Press Secretary Levitt stated at a press conference that the U.S. government will continue to impose embargoes on all vessels that the U.S. alleges are "illegally transporting oil". Relevant crew members on the seized tankers may face prosecution for violating federal laws and could be brought to the United States to stand trial.

**A 10,000-mile "Manhunt"! Tanker Rushes to "Register" in Russia, Chased by U.S. Military for 18 Days; Russia Dispatches Submarines and Other Naval Vessels for Escort!** The U.S. Navy and Air Force have deployed massive forces—are they targeting the tanker or staging a "diversionary tactic"? According to National Business Daily, an oil tanker sanctioned by the U.S. and reflagged under Russia is being escorted by the Russian Navy in the North Atlantic. In response, the U.S. military has unusually deployed high-spec forces including special forces and heavy attack aircraft. This military mobilization, far exceeding routine maritime law enforcement, has sparked speculation that the U.S. military may be preparing for larger-scale military operations.

Donald Trump stated that Venezuela will transfer 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States. The oil will be sold at market prices, and the proceeds will be overseen by Trump to ensure that the funds are used to "benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States".

The White House announced that the U.S. has started selling Venezuelan oil globally, and U.S. Energy Secretary Wright said the U.S. will control Venezuela's oil sales **indefinitely**. White House Press Secretary Levitt stated that the U.S. estimates there are 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil in storage, which will arrive in the U.S. "soon". The proceeds from oil sales will first be deposited into bank accounts controlled by the U.S., and the funds will be allocated by the U.S. government for the benefit of the people of both the U.S. and Venezuela. U.S. Energy Secretary Wright said that the U.S. only intends to control the flow of funds, not to seize Venezuela's oil resources.

**Chevron Hastily Dispatches 11 Oil Tankers to Transport Venezuelan Crude Oil Back to the U.S.** Under the framework of the "Monroe Doctrine", the U.S. is accelerating the monetization of Venezuela's energy interests through direct intervention. Vessel tracking data shows that one of the 11 tankers chartered by Chevron has completed loading, and another two are currently docked at ports. Affected by this development, international oil prices fell due to reduced supply risks. Analysts predict that if Venezuela's oil production rebounds to 1.3 million barrels per day, it will continue to pressure oil prices, but the restoration of infrastructure still requires huge investment and long-term construction.

Donald Trump proposed that the U.S. military budget should reach $1.5 trillion in 2027. Trump stated that if it were not for the "huge revenue" generated from tariffs imposed on other countries, he would have maintained a $1 trillion budget. However, thanks to the tariffs and the resulting revenue, they can now easily achieve a $1.5 trillion budget.

**Venezuela's Stock Market Soars 50% in a Single Day! Why is a "Political Upheaval" Triggering a Capital Rally?** Since President Maduro was removed from Venezuela, the country's stock market has surged 74%, with market focus centered on sectors such as oil, infrastructure and financial services. Investor optimism is mainly boosted by the Trump administration's proposed $100 billion oil revitalization plan, as the market expects Venezuela to shake off long-term sanctions and achieve economic normalization.

**Zhipu AI, the "First AI Large Model Stock", Sees Over 1,000 Times Oversubscription in Its Hong Kong Public Offering**, with an offer price of HK$116.20 and a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday. Zhipu AI made its debut on the Hong Kong bourse on Thursday, January 8, with an offer price of HK$116.20. The Hong Kong public offering was oversubscribed by 1,159.46 times, and the stock surged nearly 38% in the gray market trading on Wednesday. The IPO raised approximately HK$4.17 billion for Zhipu AI. The company owns an independent GLM technology system, recording a revenue of RMB 191 million and a net loss of as much as RMB 2.358 billion in the first half of 2025.

**Another AI Large Model Unicorn MiniMax Reportedly Prices Its Hong Kong IPO at the Top End of the Range, Valuing the Company at Over HK$46 Billion**. According to reports, MiniMax will issue 29.2 million shares at a price of HK$165 per share, exercising a 15% overallotment option. Calculations by Bloomberg show that the IPO will raise HK$4.82 billion (approximately $619 million), and the company will be listed on January 9.

**KunlunXin Sprints for Hong Kong IPO, with Plans to Raise Up to $2 Billion**. KunlunXin, an AI chip enterprise under Baidu, has launched its Hong Kong IPO. According to informed sources, the company plans to raise up to $2 billion. KunlunXin has achieved large-scale deployment in sectors such as the internet and finance, and secured large orders from clients including China Mobile. It is expected to record a revenue of around RMB 5 billion in 2025, emerging as a leading player in the domestic chip industry. Its listing marks the acceleration of the localization of China's AI computing power.

**Gemini TV Makes Its Debut at CES, Marking Google's First Move in the "Living Room Revolution"**. At CES 2026, Google launched a smart TV powered by Gemini AI. This TV not only supports content search, personalized recommendations and assisted learning through natural language dialogue, but also serves as a control center to connect and manage the entire household's smart devices.

**TSMC Warns of Chip Glut? Musk: They Are Right—Power Supply and Liquid Cooling Can't Keep Up**. Elon Musk echoed TSMC's concerns about the chip oversupply. He pointed out that the core bottleneck in AI development is shifting from chip manufacturing to "chip activation" capabilities, namely the deployment progress of power supply, transformers and cooling systems. Currently, the linear expansion speed of these infrastructure facilities has seriously lagged behind the exponential growth of chip production capacity.

**Musk's 2026 Vision: We Are Already in the "Technological Singularity"—AI and Robotics Are Unstoppable; Short-Term Turbulence and Challenges, Long-Term Age of Prosperity**. Elon Musk put forward a blockbuster timeline: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will be realized in 2026, and humanity is experiencing a "technological singularity" moment like a "supersonic tsunami". He predicted that white-collar workers and surgeons will be replaced by AI, and society will traverse through turbulence towards an era of extreme prosperity with "universal high income". He praised China's energy infrastructure, pointing out that computing power "watts" may become a new form of currency, and the deployment of computing power will shift to interstellar orbits.

## Selected Research Reports

**Goldman Sachs Remains Bullish on Chinese Equities: AI and Overseas Expansion Support Earnings; MSCI China Index Expected to Rise 20% This Year**. Goldman Sachs is optimistic about China's stock market in 2026, forecasting that the MSCI China Index and the CSI 300 Index will rise by 20% and 12% respectively. The market is shifting from valuation recovery to earnings-driven growth, with corporate profits expected to accelerate from 4% to 14% driven by AI commercialization, overseas expansion and anti-cutthroat competition policies. The profit growth rate of the TMT sector is projected to reach around 20%. Fund flows remain strong, with southbound capital potentially hitting $200 billion, and domestic reallocation expected to bring in RMB 3 trillion in incremental funds.

**Goldman Sachs Raises Forecast for PCB Market Size Significantly: Volume and Price Growth + Specification Upgrades; Expected CAGR to Surpass 140% in the Next Two Years!** According to the latest research report from Goldman Sachs, the PCB market for AI servers is ushering in structural opportunities of volume and price growth. It is projected that the total addressable market (TAM) will reach $26.6 billion and $18.3 billion respectively by 2027, mainly driven by the replacement of cables with high-value PCBs for NVIDIA's next-generation architectures (such as VR200/300 racks). Specification upgrades and yield declines have jointly boosted the unit value and raw material demand, continuously benefiting high-end PCB/CCL suppliers.

**CoWoS Capacity Support; JPMorgan Raises TPU Shipment Forecast Again: Expected to Reach 3.7 Million and 5 Million Units in the Next Two Years**. JPMorgan raised its CoWoS capacity forecasts for 2026 and 2027 by 8% and 13% respectively. Among them, TSMC's CoWoS capacity is expected to reach 115,000 wafers per month by the end of 2026. The continuous expansion of capacity will provide solid support for the growth of TPU shipments.

## Domestic Macroeconomy

**Foreign Media: Canadian Prime Minister's Office Announces PM Carney to Visit China Next Week**. According to Huanqiu Network, the Canadian Prime Minister's Office announced on the 7th local time that Canadian Prime Minister Carney will visit China from January 13 to 17. This visit marks the first trip to China by a Canadian Prime Minister since December 2017. The Canadian Prime Minister's Office stated that during his visit, Carney will discuss issues such as trade, energy, agriculture and international security with Chinese counterparts.

**MIIT: Explore Paths to Build "Model Pools" Based on Industrial Internet Platforms; Cultivate and Launch a Number of Industrial Model Products**. The MIIT proposed to enhance the intelligence level of industrial internet platforms. Based on technologies such as deep learning and large models, strengthen the industrial internet platforms' capabilities in element connection, intelligent analysis and resource allocation. Encourage industrial internet platform enterprises to accelerate the innovation of AI-based low-code and no-code technologies, and improve the development efficiency of industrial APPs and system integration capabilities. By 2028, promote no less than 50,000 enterprises to implement new-type industrial network transformation and upgrading.

# Domestic Companies

The first central SOE AI unicorn has emerged, backed by self-developed large models and four national team investors. China Telecom AI Company has secured national-level strategic investment, becoming the first AI unicorn among central state-owned enterprises and achieving a key leap from independent technology research to market recognition. Leveraging its self-developed "Xingchen" (Star) series large models and strong industrial implementation capabilities, the company is accelerating the independent, controllable and large-scale application of AI technology through a long-term strategy, supported by China Telecom's diverse application scenarios.

**Latest Capital Operation of SMEE (Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment)**. According to the Shanghai Securities News, asset consolidation has taken place in the domestic lithography machine sector: Xinsang Weizhuang, a subsidiary of SMEE, has fully acquired Weiyao Industrial, further clarifying its market positioning. The company focuses on the manufacturing of lithography machines for packaging and other equipment, having delivered its 500th stepper lithography machine and successfully independently developed its first 350nm stepper lithography machine.

**The Computing Power Revolution Behind the "Yizhongtian" Frenzy: Silicon Photonics is No Longer a Substitute, but the Emerging Leader**. Guosheng Securities believes that silicon photonics is expected to break through the "power consumption wall" and "size wall" faced by traditional optical modules. Behind the silicon photonics revolution, the core profits of the value chain are also shifting from upstream optoelectronic chips to midstream PIC (Photonic Integrated Circuit) design (silicon photonic chip design). This will significantly enhance the profit levels and voice of Chinese optical communication manufacturers in the global industrial chain.

# Overseas Macroeconomy

**America's "New Monroe Doctrine"**: More "America First" and Blatantly Hegemonic Than the Original Version. According to the Global Times, commentary suggests that the Trump administration has upgraded the "Monroe Doctrine" to the "Tang Luo Doctrine", officially declaring the Western Hemisphere as America's "core interest zone" in its national security strategy report and authorizing direct military intervention. From attacking Venezuela to threatening Colombia and Mexico, the U.S. has blatantly transformed the principle of "America for the Americans" into "America for the United States".

**Trump Says He Will Ban Institutional Investors from Buying U.S. Single-Family Homes; Blackstone Drops 9.3%**. After Trump stated that he would "take immediate action to ban large institutional investors from continuing to purchase single-family homes" to promote housing affordability, Blackstone's stock price plunged as much as 9.3% intraday before paring some losses. Blackstone is a major investor in the residential real estate sector. Home rental company American Homes 4 Rent fell 11%, Invitation Homes Inc. dropped 10%, and building materials company Builders FirstSource Inc. declined by more than 5%. The S&P Homebuilders Index slid as much as 2.2%, with 15 out of 18 constituent stocks trading lower.

**Goldman Sachs Strategists: Beware of U.S. Stocks' "High Valuation, High Concentration, High Growth"—Historically, Such Trends Often End with Sharp Declines**. Goldman Sachs' Snider predicts that the S&P 500 will rise to 7,600 points, but at the same time issues a stern warning: the current price-to-earnings ratio of 22 times is approaching the bubble peak of 2000, and the top 10 stocks account for 41% of the total market capitalization. This combination of "high valuation + extreme concentration" is similar to the periods before previous crashes such as 1929 and 2000. An even greater risk lies in the surge in AI capital expenditure. However, despite the rampant talk of a bubble, the market has not yet seen extreme irrational exuberance.

**Eurozone December CPI Slows to 2%; Market Expects ECB to Keep Policy Steady for a Long Time**. The Eurozone's inflation rate in December has fallen back to the European Central Bank's 2% target, with core inflation also continuing to slow, reinforcing market expectations that interest rates will remain unchanged at current levels. Although pressure from service inflation and wage growth persists, the ECB is expected to maintain its policy stance for the foreseeable future unless there are significant changes in the economic outlook, with market bets on rate cuts increasing only slightly.

# Overseas Companies

**Memory Chip Prices Out of Control! Wall Street Revises Forecasts Again: DRAM May Surge 88% and NAND 74% in 2026**. Considering the popularization of AI Agents and the surging demand for AI CPU memory, Citigroup has raised its forecast for the average selling price (ASP) growth of server DRAM to 144%, and expects the ASP of enterprise-grade SSDs to rise 87% year-on-year. In the view of analysts, the market will enter an extremely intense seller's market, with pricing power fully in the hands of memory giants such as Samsung.

**Morgan Stanley Survey: Soaring Memory Prices Hit Android Devices and PCs, but Apple Won't Raise Prices This Year**. Morgan Stanley believes that the pressure of rising memory costs will force most OEM manufacturers to raise prices sharply in the first half of 2026, which may lead to a decline in the annual shipments of Android phones and Windows PCs. However, Apple, having locked in more favorable memory prices in advance, is expected to increase its market share of iPhones and Macs in 2026 without changing product pricing. In addition, the shortage of hard disk supplies has intensified, with the supply-demand gap expanding to 200EB in the next 12 months. Server manufacturers such as Dell and HP may soon launch large-scale layoffs to protect operating profit margins.

**Samsung Warns: Soaring Memory Costs to Trigger Price Hikes for All Electronic Products**. The president of Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chipmaker, warned that semiconductor supply issues will affect everyone, and component costs are on the rise. Although Samsung is trying to avoid passing on costs, it has to consider repricing its entire product line. This indicates that a wide range of consumer electronics products, from smartphones and laptops to connected home appliances, may be hit by a wave of price increases.

**Report: Anthropic Plans to Raise $10 Billion at a Pre-money Valuation of $350 Billion, Valuation Nearly Doubles in Four Months!** According to media reports, Anthropic plans to raise $10 billion at a pre-money valuation of $350 billion, nearly double its valuation four months ago. People familiar with the matter said that Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and Coatue Management plan to lead the funding round.

**Musk Reveals: He Once Pushed OpenAI to Choose Microsoft Over Amazon for Partnership; Bezos is a Bit "Clever by Half"**. In 2016, Musk advised OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman to prioritize Microsoft over Amazon as a cloud service partner, and described Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as "a bit clever by half" in an email. Altman also criticized Amazon in his reply for its harsh terms and poor technology.

# Industries/Concepts

1.  **Semiconductors** | The Ministry of Commerce announced that it has decided to initiate an anti-dumping investigation into imported dichlorosilane (DCS) originating in Japan starting from January 7, 2026. The dumping investigation period for this case is set from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, and the industry injury investigation period is from January 1, 2022, to June 30, 2025. Product under investigation: Dichlorosilane, also known as dichlorosilane, dichloromethylsilane, etc. Main uses: Dichlorosilane is mainly used in thin film deposition during chip manufacturing (such as epitaxial films, silicon carbide films, silicon nitride films, silicon oxide films and polysilicon films, etc.), for the production of logic chips, memory chips, analog chips and other types of chips, and can also be used in the synthesis of silicon-based series precursors and polysilazane, etc.

2.  **Artificial Intelligence** | Eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the *Implementation Opinions on the "AI + Manufacturing" Special Action*. By 2027, China will achieve the safe and reliable supply of key core technologies for artificial intelligence, with its industrial scale and enabling capabilities ranking among the world's top tier. The document aims to promote the in-depth application of 3–5 general-purpose large models in the manufacturing sector, develop distinctive and fully covered industry-specific large models, build 100 high-quality datasets for the industrial field, and promote 500 typical application scenarios. It also plans to cultivate 2–3 globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises and a number of specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), foster a group of enabling application service providers proficient in AI and industry operations, and recognize 1,000 benchmark enterprises. The goal is to establish a world-leading open-source ecosystem, comprehensively enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to the development of artificial intelligence.

3.  **Unmanned Logistics** | The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing released the China Logistics Prosperity Index for December 2025 on the 7th. Looking at the full-year data, the average prosperity index for the four quarters has rebounded steadily, with the December index hitting the highest level in 2025, indicating that the demand for logistics services in the real economy remains active. The China Logistics Prosperity Index stood at 52.4% in December 2025, up 1.5 percentage points month-on-month. Among the main indicators, the business volume index, equipment utilization rate index, new orders index, capital turnover rate index and employee index are all in the expansion range and maintained a month-on-month rebound.

4.  **AI Hardware** | The Alibaba Cloud Tongyi Intelligent Hardware Exhibition will be held in Shenzhen from January 8 to 11. Focusing on the innovative concept of "Carbon-Silicon Symbiosis", the exhibition will showcase thousands of intelligent hardware products covering all scenarios of life, work, travel and entertainment, creating an immersive technology interactive experience for audiences of all ages, allowing visitors to directly perceive the cutting-edge trends of the AI hardware industry and explore new paths for the integration of nature and technology.

5.  **Paper Making** | According to Sina Finance, at the beginning of 2026, Suzano, the world's largest pulp producer, announced that it will increase its pulp prices in Europe, North America and Asia starting from January. Specifically, it will raise pulp prices by $120 per ton in Europe and North America, and by $20 per ton in Asia. This move directly benefits spot pulp prices, indicating tight market supply and demand. The active price increase on the supply side may stem from rising raw material costs or strengthened demand, which will drive up global spot prices.

6.  **Civil Aviation** | According to the Securities Times, the National Civil Aviation Work Conference was held in Beijing on January 6. The meeting systematically reviewed the achievements of civil aviation work in 2025 and during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, comprehensively planned the development ideas for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, and studied and arranged the main work tasks for 2026.

7.  **Semiconductors** | According to The Paper, the lighting ceremony of the first two-dimensional semiconductor engineering demonstration process line of the former Jimi Technology was successfully held in Chuansha, Pudong, Shanghai on January 6. This is also the first domestic two-dimensional semiconductor engineering demonstration process line, which is expected to be officially put into operation in June this year.

# Today's Key News Preview

- U.S. Initial Jobless Claims in the Previous Week

- U.S. October Trade Balance

- Eurozone November Producer Price Index (PPI)

- Bloomberg Commodity Index Rebalancing

- Zhipu AI Hong Kong IPO; Tianshu Zhixin Hong Kong IPO

**[End of Full Text]**

# Risk Warning and Disclaimer

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