Chip stocks demonstrated strength against the broader market trend. At the time of writing, Shanghai Fudan (01385) rose 3.98% to HK$52.3; HUA HONG SEMI (01347) increased 3.19% to HK$92.15; and SMIC (00981) climbed 2.81% to HK$76.8.

During the CES 2026 exhibition, the three chip giants—Nvidia, AMD, and Intel—engaged in fierce competition, successively launching their next-generation AI chip products to vie for market share.

Notably, Nvidia showcased its next-generation Vera Rubin platform at CES, which comprises six independent chips; the flagship version will be equipped with 72 GPUs and 36 CPUs.

CEO Jensen Huang stated that the Vera Rubin platform has entered full production and is expected to begin shipments later this year. These chips offer AI computing power up to five times that of the previous generation when running chatbots and other AI applications.

Additionally, on January 6 local time, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed during the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the company is finalizing the last details of a license with the U.S. government for the export of H200 chips to China, with deliveries anticipated to commence soon.

Morgan Stanley pointed out that uncertainty remains regarding the approval of H200 chip purchases for all cloud service providers, as it could impact the adoption of domestic chips. However, it is expected that cloud service providers will utilize a combination of H200 and local chips, particularly for inference demand.

Morgan Stanley anticipates that the H200 will help meet China's training demands and potentially generate more demand for inference chips, thereby expanding the overall market.

The firm is optimistic about SMIC, viewing it as a "key supporter of AI localization in China," and holds a positive outlook on Chinese chip equipment enterprises, expecting robust demand for advanced logic chips to persist.