Chinese mainland shares closed higher on Monday, driven by renewed investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and confidence in China's semiconductor sector, according to a China Global Television Network (CGTN) market analyst.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went up 1.08 percent to close at 4,225.02 points, reclaiming the 4,200-point level, while the Shenzhen Component Index climbed 2.16 percent to 15,899.30 points.
The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 3.50 percent to close at 3,928.97 points Monday.
Timothy Pope, an analyst for CGTN, recapped on the day's market developments from Shanghai, noting the strong performance of AI-related stocks which saw the indexes hit the highest levels for over a decade.
"Chinese equities really jumped again today as investors were rushing back to buy all things AI-related. The Shanghai Composite Index added a little more than one percent, but it closed at an almost 11-year high. The same was true for the ChiNext board and the Shenzhen Component Index as well. All of them are sitting at levels that we haven't seen since roughly the middle of June 2015," said Pope.
"The CSI Semiconductor Index, that one touched a record all time intra-day high today, although it did slip a little bit back off that, but it still closed up a whopping 6.3 percent. The IT sub index also hit a record high and it added 4.4 percent. So we had pretty much everything concerning AI from chip designers to rare earth metals producers -- all of that was gaining ground today. Analysts are talking up China's position on tech, chips especially. CITIC Securities had a note today saying that China's cost advantage in this area is only going to grow and that we'll see Chinese chip-related exports growing strongly, alongside global demand for AI computing," he said.
Pope also pointed to the significance of the upcoming visit to China by U.S. President Donald Trump, after a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed on Monday that Trump will pay a state visit from May 13 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
He said this is likely to have a significant impact on the direction of the stock market later this week.
"Investors are also going to be looking ahead to this week's meetings between presidents Xi and Trump in Beijing. That visit is really likely to dominate the second-half of the week. And today as well the market was also looking at the producer price index (PPI) where inflation was up the most since June 2022, but almost entirely because of the commodity price shock generated by the Iran war," said the analyst.
Chinese equities surge as investors flood into AI-related stocks: analyst
Major breakthroughs by Chinese scientists have laid the foundation for a future where space-based solar power stations are capable of wirelessly transmitting energy to Earth and spacecraft, though significant engineering problems remain.
A research team from Xidian University in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has made significant progress on the Sun Chasing project, or "Zhuri" in Chinese. The team has developed a ground-based test system for wireless power transmission that can charge multiple moving targets at the same time.
In recent tests, the system achieved a wireless power transmission efficiency of 20.8 percent from direct current to direct current over a distance of 100 meters. It delivered 1,180 watts of power. The team has also built a wireless charging system for drones. In a test, a drone flying at 30 kilometers per hour was able to receive 143 watts of stable power from 30 meters away.
A space solar power station works exactly as its name suggests: a huge array of solar panels placed in orbit. It would collect sunlight in space, where the sun always shines, and then convert that energy into microwaves or lasers to beam down to Earth or directly to satellites and spacecraft. This could address two significant issues: supplying uninterrupted power for space missions and alleviating energy shortages on the ground.
"The construction of space solar power stations could become a major undertaking in the future. One potential benefit is access to a virtually unlimited power supply. Because energy can be collected continuously in space 24 hours a day, electricity could be supplied on an uninterrupted basis," said Fan Guanheng, an associate professor at the School of Mechano-Electronic Engineering at Xidian University.
"Secondly, it could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, thereby lowering carbon emissions and helping protect the environment. Thirdly, it could support the development of charging infrastructure in space and enable wireless microwave charging for spacecraft, changing the way power is supplied to space vehicles," the professor added.
In 2018, the research team launched the first phase of the Sun Chasing project to build a ground test system. By June 2022, they had completed the world's first full-link, full-system ground validation system for a space solar power station. Now, the team has moved to phase two. The goal now is to solve the challenges of generating high power in space and transmitting it efficiently over long distances.
According to Duan Baoyan, an expert at Xidian University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, recent breakthroughs include improving the efficiency of solar energy collection and conversion, increasing the precision of microwave beam control to reduce energy loss, and making the transmitting and receiving antennas smaller and lighter, which is critical for space application.
The team has also solved the problem of how to power multiple moving targets at once using a single transmitter. This means that in the future, one space power station could potentially supply electricity to several satellites or ground vehicles at the same time, Duan said.
Despite the advances in ground-based validation, a series of technical challenges must still be overcome before the technology can be deployed in space.
"The first issue that needs to be addressed is the adaptability of components to the space environment, as conditions in space are completely different from those on Earth, including radiation exposure and extreme temperatures. Another challenge involves the deployment and retraction design of transmitting and receiving antennas. We also need to develop thermal management systems to cope with extreme temperatures and temperature fluctuations in space. These are all areas where further breakthroughs are needed," said Qian Sihao, an associate professor at the School of Mechano-Electronic Engineering at Xidian University.
"We have now completed the development and validation of a ground-based test system, and our next step is to carry out in-orbit wireless microwave power transmission," Fan said.
With ground validation complete, the team now turns its attention to overcoming the harsh realities of space, aiming to demonstrate in-orbit wireless power transmission and bring the vision of orbital solar energy closer to reality.
Space-to-earth solar power moves closer to reality although hurdles remain: scientists
