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The selloff in Chinese AI developers deepened on Friday. Hong Kong-listed Z.AI fell 10.88 percent and MiniMax fell 8.73 percent, while Tencent lost 2.71 percent, Alibaba 2.35 percent and Kuaishou Technology 3.91 percent. The Hang Seng slipped 0.9 percent, the CSI 300 fell 0.1 percent and the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.2 percent. Investors are pricing the risk that Nvidia’s turmoil builds support in Washington for the Remote Access Security Act, which would give the Commerce Department authority over remote access to restricted technology through cloud services, and Reuters reported that Chinese developers and cloud providers are seeking to secure Nvidia-powered capacity abroad, including through operators in Southeast Asia, before access is restricted. Nvidia itself closed 4.3 percent lower on Thursday after falling as much as 14 percent intraday, and slipped a further 3 percent in extended trading.
Chinese semiconductor stocks rose on Thursday, led by Cambricon, up more than 11 percent, and Moore Threads, up about 7 percent. SMIC rose 2.42 percent in Shanghai and 1.67 percent in Hong Kong, Hua Hong Semiconductor gained 2.7 percent and chip equipment maker NAURA Technology advanced 3.12 percent, while Chinese AI names fell, with Z.AI down 7.4 percent, MiniMax down 6.1 percent and Alibaba down 4.9 percent.
The move followed a 5.7 percent rise in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on Wednesday and reporting by The Information that the Commerce Department is preparing a rule to prevent Chinese AI companies from remotely accessing advanced chips through data centres in other countries. The measure could be announced as soon as this month, remains under interagency review and has not been finalised.