Trump brings 17 CEOs, fueling the AI bull market further

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Author: Ba Jiuling, Wu Xiaobo Channel

“A plane carrying the ‘Jerusalem of the stock market’ is flying toward us.”

On the evening of May 13th, the U.S. presidential delegation officially landed at Beijing Capital International Airport.

In the eyes of investors, what landed is the hottest AI bull market right now.

Along with Trump, 17 top executives from American companies arrived. Their combined market value exceeds $10 trillion, accounting for more than one-fifth of U.S. stocks, equivalent to bringing half of America’s assets here.

Among them, familiar faces like Huang Renxun and Elon Musk need no introduction. This trip also included representatives from the hottest AI hardware companies on Wall Street.

For example, Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, whose stock price surged over 320% last year driven by AI storage demand; and Jim Anderson, whose company Goertek is a representative of the “Light (Optical Communication) Concept Stocks” in the U.S. stock market, with this year’s stock price doubling as well.

Huang Renxun and Musk accompany Trump to Beijing

In other words, in this team, besides Trump, the “King of K-line,” there is also the entire American AI industry’s “steadfast bullish crowd.”

The U.S. stock market also cheered for this trip. On that night, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit record highs, with Tesla rising over 2%, Nvidia and Apple up over 1%. The latter two even touched their previous market cap peaks.

In less than a day, more good news emerged. After the A-share market closed that day, Reuters issued a major positive report, stating that the U.S. has allowed 10 Chinese companies, including Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, and JD.com, to purchase Nvidia’s H200 chips. When the market opened that evening, Nvidia’s stock price hit a new all-time high.

Such a trend seems to once again reinforce investors’ obsession with a current market logic—“High cut high, accounts keep rising; low cut low, levels keep decreasing.”

High cut high, accounts keep rising

Generally speaking, during relatively stable markets, there is a cycle of sector rotation, flowing from high-flying stocks that have gained too much to low-priced stocks that haven’t risen yet, known as “high cut low.”

In investors’ experience, when tech stocks surge, profits are shifted to cyclical stocks; when cyclical stocks exhaust their momentum, funds move to dividend stocks, and finally, the market ends with pharmaceuticals and consumer sectors.

But in the past month, global stock markets have not moved funds from high to low sectors but continued to chase the stronger, hotter, and more crowded AI direction, which is “high cut high.”

The market is like a snake biting its own tail, rolling from AI-related stocks to AI-related stocks, ultimately rolling out one double-up stock after another.

From early April to May 11th, in the A-share market, funds flowed from upstream optical chips (representative stock: Yuanjue Technology, up over 60%) to the midstream “Three Swords of Optical Modules”—Yingli Sheng (up over 70%), ZTE Xun (up over 55%), and Tianfutong (up over 45%).

Then, funds moved to PCB printed circuit boards (represented by Shuidi Co., up over 70%), and finally to downstream AI computing power (represented by Cambrian, up over 90%), almost the entire AI infrastructure chain was rising.

The U.S. stock market is also wandering in this strange cycle: after Nvidia’s 30% rise, it’s the turn of Micron (181%) and SanDisk (100%) in storage.

Data from Dongwu Securities shows that as of April 24th, the trading volume of the top 5% of stocks by turnover accounted for 43.7% of the total A-share market, approaching the crowdedness threshold of 45%.

Under the fierce “high cut high” squeeze, an extreme sentiment has even emerged in the market: “Besides AI, I don’t want to buy anything else.”

And this is precisely the choice of mainstream funds.

In the first quarter of this year, among the top 50 heavy holdings of funds in A-shares, 18 belonged to the information technology sector. For example, ZTE Xun was held by 1,163 funds, and the funds behind Yingli Sheng also number in the thousands. Meanwhile, in global hedge funds, the net share of the semiconductor industry has jumped from 5.5% last year to 20% now.

The biggest victims of “high cut high” are naturally those holding other “non-AI stocks.”

A new world is accelerating to arrive, but not everyone can sit on that rocket.

CITIC Securities data shows that among the stock indices that rose over 10% in April, the “Information Technology + Communication Services” sectors contributed an average of 68.9% to the index gains. Even the weaker indices saw tech sectors contribute as much as 54%.

In contrast, in the context of the Shanghai Composite Index stabilizing above 4,100 points and rising 5.66% in April, sectors like Food & Beverage (-1.1%), Transportation (-0.7%), and Banking (-0.6%) lagged behind and underperformed the market.

AI enjoys prosperity exclusively

However, while many indicators warn of the risks of single-sector crowding, no one dares to say they are getting off.

The reason is that people prefer “high cut high,” not solely out of fear of missing out, but also due to certain practical considerations.

Currently, AI has genuinely boosted the economy and corporate profits—exaggerating a bit, it has become “the hope of the entire village.”

Taking the U.S. as an example, in the first quarter, U.S. GDP grew by 2% (excluding inflation). According to The Wall Street Journal, AI contributed 31% to economic growth, while non-AI sectors only grew by 0.1%.

Among them, personal consumption, the largest component of U.S. GDP, grew modestly by 1.6%; investments in commercial buildings like housing, office buildings, factories, as well as transportation equipment like trucks and airplanes, declined. In contrast, investment in tech equipment soared 43%, software investment increased 23%, and data center construction grew 22%.

Oracle and OpenAI data centers

Similar situations are subtly emerging in China’s economic structure.

In the first quarter of 2026, high-tech manufacturing industries such as computer communication and equipment manufacturing saw profits grow 47.4% year-on-year, pulling up the profits of all above-scale industrial enterprises by 7.9 percentage points.

In terms of investment, the growth gap between high-tech industry investment and overall fixed asset investment widened from 4.8 percentage points in 2024 to 5.7.

On the export side, the AI-related industrial chain’s pull is even more evident.

In the first quarter of this year, exports of integrated circuits increased by 77.5% year-on-year, industrial robots with AI visual recognition and autonomous navigation capabilities grew 42%, significantly outpacing overall export growth.

By April, China’s export growth further rebounded to 14.1%. Among them, exports of integrated circuits increased by 99.6%, and exports of automatic data processing equipment grew by 47.3%, becoming the core driver of exports.

On the import side, driven by AI computing power demand, China’s integrated circuit imports increased 45% year-on-year in the first quarter, further rising to 54.7% in April.

Profitability in the capital market is also concentrated in “AI.”

According to estimates, in the first quarter of this year, the information technology sector contributed 80% of U.S. stock market profits. The overall profit of the S&P 500 increased by 15.1% year-on-year, but among the seven “Big Tech” companies, profits soared 61%, while the other 493 companies only grew by 16%.

Similarly, in the Chinese A-share market, this pattern is evident.

In the first quarter of this year, sectors highly related to AI, such as communications, electronics, and non-ferrous metals, saw net profit TTM growth of 60.9% compared to the end of 2023; excluding these three sectors, other non-financial sectors’ net profit TTM declined by 23.5% during the same period.

The prosperity exclusive to AI has also given investors the courage to form groups.

New stories vs. old narratives

However, despite the strong AI narrative, the three-day, two-night visit of Trump to China still brought new variables to the market.

On May 14th, after the Shanghai Composite Index hit a phased high of 4,258 points, it turned downward, closing below 4,200 points with a large -1.52% bearish candle; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also opened high and then fell.

This is a sign of divergence.

Historically, May and June are usually the months when sector rotation slows down, indicating that a new cycle of structural themes may emerge.

Wall Street is also preparing for this, indicating they do not expect a major resolution but hold high hopes for “relationship easing.”

After all, apart from AI, there are still many problems in the real world waiting to be solved, and the key to solving them lies in these two superpowers.

According to media summaries, topics that may be involved in this China-U.S. dialogue include the Iran-U.S. conflict, tariffs, critical minerals, U.S. investments, imported agricultural products, etc., each of which could become a new market indicator.

But this does not mean the “high cut high” cycle of AI will stop.

On one hand, according to the calendar effect, May and June are often times when the tech industry outperforms the market because this period also hosts many important tech conferences.

On the other hand, considering that many “AI bulls” are sitting in the market, future news will naturally favor the “high cut high” crowd, with Reuters’ reports being a good example.

From their responses, the future market evolution still depends on the correlation between related assets and AI, as well as the influence of geopolitical factors.

Ironically, some viewpoints are now proposing a new logic: when AI becomes the only prosperity, more and more industries that were originally unrelated to AI are starting to rely on the wealth effects created by the AI bull market.

In other words, consumption, the housing market, risk assets, and even domestic demand recovery all need that rocket to keep going up.

Perhaps, as former Citibank CEO Chuck Prince once said:

As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. (As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to keep dancing)

The subtlety is that this quote was written on the eve of the subprime crisis.

May Wealth Survey Results Announced

At the end of the article, we invited nine investors and financial experts to forecast and judge the market over the next month.

The monthly wealth growth report has been issued for the third time since March, each month conducting a market check based on the previous month’s performance and inviting experts to make predictions.

This month, the major assets involved in the survey are: CSI 300 Index (main A-share large caps), Hang Seng Index (representing Hong Kong stocks), U.S. stocks (AI bubble indicator), U.S. dollar index (inflation expectations), gold prices (hedge), first-tier city housing prices (confidence), crude oil prices (geopolitics), and China’s CPI main consumer index (domestic demand expectations).

The survey results are shown in the chart:

Additionally, after experts completed their bullish or bearish assessments of assets, the next step was asset allocation involving real money. Based on the eight asset categories above, we further selected eight corresponding investment targets and invited them to choose allocations.

The results show that, in the priority ranking, the most frequently chosen assets outline two clear main lines: technological growth and “HALO” assets.

Specifically, there are five obvious features:

▶▷ First, the CSI 50 ETF has been the most favored asset for three consecutive months.

Experts who are optimistic and highly allocated for it give three reasons:

◎ First, the ChiNext/STAR Market has already shown strong profit-making effects.

◎ Second, this bull market is essentially a “tech bull,” with the STAR Market being the main battlefield for new productive forces and supported by the “14th Five-Year Plan.”

◎ Third, the CSI 50 Index has high certainty, better than specific stocks or sectors.

▶▷ Second, the preference for “HALO” assets has risen again.

In the recent three months of surveys, experts’ optimism about “HALO” concept stocks has shown a clear change:

In March, “HALO” concept stocks were favored 6 times; in April, the number dropped to 3, mainly due to concerns about overheated sentiment. In May, the situation turned around as the huge energy demand for AI infrastructure gave “HALO” assets—represented by non-ferrous metals, electricity, and energy—a new story. The number of times “HALO” stocks were favored increased to 5, ranking second again.

▶▷ Third, most experts choose to avoid popular “Yizhentian” stocks.

The main reason is the declining win rate. Over the past year, “Yizhentian” stocks surged 7–10 times; the optical module sector it represents has reached its highest crowdedness in nearly a decade.

▶▷ Fourth, although experts remain cautious about the recovery of consumption, they generally recognize the value of allocating to consumer ETFs.

In terms of allocation ratio, fewer experts are highly allocated or moderately allocated to consumer ETFs; more than half prefer low allocation, but only two chose no allocation.

They generally believe that the consumer sector has not yet benefited from the bull market and still has room for catch-up; with crowdedness in popular sectors, the cost-effectiveness is high. Therefore, current allocations are a “time-losing, money-saving” option.

▶▷ Fifth, the preference for defensive assets continues to decline.

Over the past three months, gold’s favorability and overall allocation ratio have steadily decreased. Most experts are short-term bearish on gold, holding it only as a portfolio asset.

The outlook for money market funds and U.S. Treasuries is polarized: one camp favors high allocation to tech growth assets and low or no allocation to cash products, reasoning that the slow and steady bull market remains intact, and the market will continue to push higher; the other camp favors high allocation to cash and low or no allocation to tech assets, citing risk control—“it’s hard to find cost-effective directions when assets are at high levels, and it’s not the time to add positions.”