In "The Big Banks," Citigroup expects that the impact of the China-U.S. tariff game on Tencent and Alibaba's operations will be limited

Citi published a research report stating that the escalating tensions between the United States and China, while impacting market sentiment, are believed to have limited effects on the business operations of Tencent (00700.HK) and Alibaba-W (09988.HK). It is believed that the U.S. regulatory measures will be difficult to curb China's artificial intelligence development in the short term.

After the U.S. and China announced a series of export control measures last week, Alibaba and Tencent's stock prices plummeted by 8.5% and 6.3% respectively last Friday (10th), as the escalating trade tensions are expected to put pressure on the performance of Chinese internet stocks. However, Citi pointed out that, aside from the gaming business, Tencent's operations are mainly focused on the domestic market. The company has already reserved sufficient high-performance chips for future development and can manage chip demand through purchasing domestic alternatives, adopting various models, and upgrading software. Meanwhile, Alibaba International has expanded into different regions, with a very limited share in the U.S. market. The cloud business is expected to maintain relatively high growth driven by strong AI demand and the self-development of new chips