Elyssa Lopez · · 5 min readAlibaba expands, but Nvidia hedges bets
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Remember when the Nvidia stock lost US$589 billion in value after DeepSeek unveiled a new model that some believed made the chipmaker irrelevant?
It looks like the US market has all but forgotten why it dumped the stock at the time – which was only nine months ago, by the way.
Fast forward to last week, Nvidia and OpenAI announced a bombshell deal: The chipmaker is investing US$100 billion so the Sam Altman-led firm can build data centers that will also house Nvidia’s chips. Investors are already forecasting that the chipmaker’s stock will hit US$225 – about a 20% upside from its current price – because of the deal.
What happened? Just eight months ago, the market thought Nvidia was overpriced – not that the market needs a refresher about how much cheaper the chips could be.
Image credit: Timmy Loen
On the other side of the globe, Alibaba made its own announcement two days after the news. The Chinese giant is earmarking US$53 billion for global data center expansion and development over the next three years – a significantly cheaper price than what OpenAI is planning.
This puts the Nvidia deal in a new light. Is the chipmaker paying OpenAI to use its products as a form of insurance against its own future irrelevance? Weren’t these Chinese AI models supposed to be built without Nvidia chips?
These are questions that will remain unanswered for years to come. But for now, we’re diving deep into how Chinese AI prowess is turning out – whether in robotics or in video game development – with our top stories this week.
Elyssa Lopez, journalist
Top AI reads from our desk
1️⃣ Hooked, hyped, and pampered: the blurry reality of AI friendship
My colleague Melissa Goh looks into the dangers of spending time with AI companions, maybe to the point of even having a friendship with them. As one certified psychologist says, conversations with these bots only turn them into personal “echo chambers” – not that it’s stopping the industry from building more. One founder even says it’s only a matter of time before we see these AI companions everywhere – from wearables to smart vehicles.
2️⃣ Shenzhen’s robot vision challenges Silicon Valley’s AI dream
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