Moonshot AI Raises the Stakes for Big Tech? ETFs in Focus

The debut sparked a selloff in AI-related stocks. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 1.1% last week and 4.3% on July 24. The model also challenged the view that U.S. firms can maintain AI leadership simply through greater spending on computing power.

China Closes the AI Gap

Analysts say Kimi K3 highlights how quickly Chinese AI developers have narrowed the performance gap with U.S. rivals despite limited access to advanced chips, per the above-mentioned source.

China’s DeepSeek also surprised the industry previously with efficient AI models trained on lower-end hardware. More recently, Z.ai gained attention with its GLM-5.2 model before Moonshot's launch triggered a sharp decline in its shares, per the same source.

Domestic Innovation Accelerates

China's tech giants are also joining the race. Meituan recently introduced its LongCat-2.0 model and claimed it was trained entirely on Chinese-made processors, underscoring the country's growing ability to build advanced AI systems without relying on U.S. chips.

Analysts believe these developments suggest China's AI ecosystem is evolving faster than many had anticipated.

Time for China Tech ETFs?

Since early 2025, China's growing influence in the AI arena came into investors’ radar with the help of DeeepSeek's success. DeepSeek had grabbed headlines at that time, with the release of its new R1 model.

According to Yahoo Finance, the company revealed that training the R1 model cost just $5.6 million, significantly less than the $100 million required to train OpenAI's GPT-4 model.This raised important questions about massive AI investments made by Big Tech and the potential rise of more cost-efficient AI agents, which could disrupt the current market dynamics. 

If China’s rise continues to take shape, investors may turn increasingly optimistic about that country’s tech sector. The valuation gap between China and the United States could narrow as foreign investments may rise.

Cheaper Valuation of Chinese Tech Stocks

Chinese technology companies are now value stocks courtesy of AI tailwinds and attractive valuations. The Hang Seng Tech Index trades at 27.56 times trailing-12 month earnings (as of June 30, 2026), lower than the Nasdaq 100's 33.05 times (per WSJ) (as of July 24, 2026).

China Tech ETFs in Focus

China tech-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like KraneShares Hang Seng TECH Index ETF KTEC and KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF KWEB have added 6.4% and 8.2%, respectively, over the past month (as of July 24, 2026). In comparison, the Nasdaq-based ETF QQQ has lost about 2.5% over the past month.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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