Chinese artificial intelligence stocks rallied strongly on Wednesday following public praise from Nvidia’s CEO for OpenClaw and agentic AI tools.
Smaller AI developers drew the most pronounced moves. MiniMax Group Inc (HK:0100) leapt 16% and Zhipu, trading as Knowledge Atlas (HK:2513), climbed 10%. Both companies are considered among China’s leading AI developers and had rolled out agent-style offerings akin to OpenClaw in the previous two weeks.
Cloud and AI infrastructure providers also advanced sharply. UCloud Technology Co Ltd (SS:688158), QingCloud Technologies Corp (SS:688316), and Hangzhou Shunwang Tech (SZ:300113) each surged in a 12% to 14% range, reflecting heightened investor interest in firms positioned to support AI workloads.
Large-cap internet and technology names produced mixed returns. Baidu Inc (HK:9888) ticked up 0.6% and Alibaba Group (HK:9988) added 2.8%, while Tencent (HK:0700) lagged after an underwhelming quarterly report from its unit Tencent Music Entertainment Group (HK:1698).
Alibaba’s stock performance was supported in part by the company raising prices on its AI services amid robust demand, according to market participants.
The market rally followed comments from Nvidia’s chief executive. In an interview with CNBC, Jensen Huang described OpenClaw and AI agents in emphatic terms, saying, "This is definitely the next ChatGPT." Nvidia also introduced its own toolset for OpenClaw and autonomous AI agents this week, adding momentum to investor interest.
OpenClaw is an open-source AI tool capable of executing independent, automated tasks directly on a user’s personal computer. The software drew viral attention for performing chores such as sorting files, checking emails, and responding to messages without continuous human intervention.
Over the past month, Chinese AI firms have been quick to adopt OpenClaw-like capabilities. Startups such as Moonshot and MiniMax unveiled comparable agentic products as they sought to capitalize on enthusiasm around autonomous AI agents.
At the same time, regulators in Beijing signaled a more cautious stance. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology warned that certain OpenClaw deployments posed substantial security risks. Separately, authorities were reported to have blocked the agent’s use on official government devices.
Investors now face a market where rapid product development and strong demand for AI services are colliding with regulatory scrutiny and selective earnings disappointments, producing differentiated outcomes across companies and subsectors.