Chip stock earnings mixed, Nvidia nears four-month low

A mixed picture was seen in semiconductor stocks, as China's new AI tool DeepSeek has continued to shake up the sector.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML's shares surged more than 5 percent on Wednesday following the release of stronger-than-expected 2024 financial results, rebounding followed a plunge in the company's market value on Monday, as DeepSeek's AI technology sent ripples through the semiconductor market.

Speaking at a press conference on ASML's 2024 financial results, CEO Christophe Fouquet underscored that the continued expansion of AI depends on lowering costs and energy consumption, which are two critical challenges facing the industry.

In the United States, chip stocks mostly fell. Nvidia lost 6-percent after a short rebound on Tuesday.

The company's shares were trading slightly over 120 U.S. dollars, down over 13-percent from last week.

DeepSeek-R1, a new open-source model developed by the Chinese startup DeepSeek, was launched on Jan 20, and overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT on Apple's App Store downloads list.

DeepSeek is shaking up the AI industry with cost-efficient large language models which can perform just as well as rivals from giants like OpenAI and Meta.

Chip stock earnings mixed, Nvidia nears four-month low

Chip stock earnings mixed, Nvidia nears four-month low

Chip stock earnings mixed, Nvidia nears four-month low

Chip stock earnings mixed, Nvidia nears four-month low

Chip stock earnings mixed, Nvidia nears four-month low

Chip stock earnings mixed, Nvidia nears four-month low

Chip stock earnings mixed, Nvidia nears four-month low

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's official visit to China signals a policy shift towards building a more pragmatic relationship between the two countries, according to a Canadian researcher.

Carney arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to begin an official visit to China through Saturday, which marks the first trip by a Canadian Prime Minister to the country in eight years.

Robert Hanlon, director and principal investigator of Canada and the Asia Pacific Policy Project (CAPPP) at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, told the China Global Television Network (CGTN) that Carney's visit indicates Canada is recalibrating its strategic perception of China, which could cement the foundation for the country's economic diversification efforts and boost the development of bilateral cooperation.

"I think it's a clear message that he has moved Canada's strategy to a much more pragmatic, interest-based, -focused relationship with our trading partners, moving away from values-based narratives that we might have heard on previous governments. Canada has spoken about moving from what the Prime Minister's Office is calling "from reliance to resilience", and that means diversifying our economies and our trade everywhere in the world. And so China being our second largest trading partner, it makes perfect sense for our PM to head to Beijing," he said.

The scholar also noted the huge cooperation potential between the two sides in economic and trade fields, citing Canada's efforts to step up shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the planned construction of an oil pipeline in Alberta which aims to increase export access to Asian markets. "Canada and China both share tremendous economic opportunities together and so finding ways to enhance our exports. Canada specifically looking to build out its LNG and oil, kind of export market. We know Canada is a major producer of critical minerals and China is a buyer. And so there's a lot of synergy between that kind of those kind of markets," he said.

Canadian PM's visit to China paves way for more pragmatic trade ties: scholar