As China rolls out a grand plan for integrating artificial intelligence into the economy, the latest earnings results show that some companies are already seeing results amid slower overall growth . Mainland China stocks, known as A shares, have so far reported third-quarter earnings growth of 12% from a year ago, according to UBS Securities China equity strategist Lei Meng in a report Tuesday. “Given a demand upswing from AI and self-reliance, the greater tech sector’s rapid earnings growth drove overall ex-financials’ earnings.” Earnings in AI-related sectors such as media, electronics and computers have risen by 57%, 41% and 34%, respectively in the third quarter, Meng said. “We think ‘growth’ may remain a key investment theme. We highlight better risk/reward in the ChiNext board, due to its accelerating earnings with long-term resilience and valuation.” The ChiNext is a Shenzhen, China stock index whose largest members include CATL, Innolight and Sungrow Power. In mainland China, “hardware manufacturers related to AI infrastructure have benefited the most from the rally,” said Herald van der Linde, head of Asia Pacific equity strategy at HSBC. In Hong Kong, “internet names with AI-related cloud services and models have benefited the most,” Van der Linde said in an email T …
