Investing.com-- Shares of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (HK:0981) (SMIC) surged to a record high on Thursday, propelled by the burgeoning success of China’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector, notably the advancements by AI startup DeepSeek.
Hong Kong-listed SMIC stock jumped 5% to HK$46.95 as of 03:00 GMT, its highest level ever.
The rally was part of a broader uptick in Chinese tech stocks, driven by investor optimism surrounding DeepSeek’s recent achievements.
DeepSeek has garnered significant attention for its development of a low-cost, high-performance AI model, R1, which operates efficiently on less advanced hardware.
The success of DeepSeek has had a ripple effect across the tech sector, with companies such as Moore Threads and Hygon Information Technology (SS:688041)announcing support for DeepSeek’s models using their AI chips.
Additionally, major cloud service providers like Alibaba (HK:9988), Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU), and Tencent (HK:0700) have made DeepSeek’s models available on their platforms, further bolstering the AI ecosystem in China.
Meanwhile, a China Fund News report showed that Chinese AI firm DeepSeek is aggressively expanding by offering high salaries to attract top talent, with deep learning researchers for AGI earning up to 1.54 million yuan ($213,000) annually.
The firm has over 50 job listings, mostly for tech roles in Beijing and Hangzhou, significantly outpacing the average AI engineer salary in China.
Despite the Trump administration’s imposition of 10% tariffs on Chinese goods, the robust performance of the domestic tech sector has provided a counterbalance, with investors remaining optimistic about proactive policies from Beijing.