A-share evening hot topic | AI call volume first surpasses the United States! Domestic large models dominate the global market.

1. February Explosion! China AI Call Volume Exceeds the United States for the First Time, Four Large Models Top the Global Top Five According to reports, the model call volume of China's AI exploded in February, surpassing the United States for the first time. Data from the global largest AI model API aggregation platform OpenRouter shows that in the week of February 9th to 15th, the call volume of Chinese models reached 4.12 trillion Tokens, exceeding the 2.94 trillion Tokens of US models during the same period for the first time. In the week of February 16th to 22nd, the weekly call volume of Chinese models further increased to 5.16 trillion Tokens, a 127% increase over three weeks, while the call volume of US models during the same period fell to 2.7 trillion Tokens. At the same time, among the top five models in global call volume rankings, Chinese models occupy four seats. This strong growth momentum is not dependent on a single popular product, but on the rise of a cluster of Chinese AI companies. Token is the smallest unit for AI models to process text. Compared to user numbers, Token call volume is a key indicator that can more realistically reflect the intensity of AI model usage, user stickiness, and commercial value. Chinese model manufacturers are occupying the global market with fast iteration and cost advantages, and domestic demand for computing power is experiencing exponential growth. 2. Heng Science Index Declined Over 20% from the Previous High, Entering a Technical Bear Market! What is the Future Market Trend? On February 26th, the three major Hong Kong stock indices showed a trend of opening high and falling low, accelerating the decline towards the end of the trading day. At the close, the Hang Seng Technology Index fell by 2.87%, hitting a new low since July last year and pulling back more than 23% from its peak in October last year. The Hang Seng Index and the state-owned enterprise index fell by 1.44% and 2.44% respectively. So, is the current sentiment too pessimistic? This requires going back to the logical starting point, whether companies like Anthropic will truly impact the software industry? UBS analysts believe that worries brought by AI have created buying opportunities. The capital expenditures of Chinese technology giants are far lower than their American counterparts, and it is expected that local mega-scale cloud service providers will announce expansion plans in the upcoming earnings season. More importantly, in terms of specific configurations, UBS has increased the weight of TENCENT by 3 percentage points, and increased the weights of Bilibili, BOSS Zhipin, Meituan, NetEase, and GSX Techedu by 1 percentage point each, while reducing the weights of companies like Vipshop, New Oriental, and Alibaba. 3. Regarding the Sixth Round of China-US Economic and Trade Consultations, the Latest Response from the Ministry of Commerce When responding to questions about the upcoming sixth round of China-US economic and trade consultations, Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yongqian stated that China and the United States have maintained continuous communication at various levels through the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism. China is willing to work with the United States to implement and maintain the consensus reached at the meeting between the two countries' leaders and the phone call on February 4th through equal consultation, properly manage differences, expand practical cooperation, maintain the healthy, stable, and sustainable development of China-US economic and trade relations, and better benefit both countries and the world. 4. Baidu's Fourth Quarter Revenue Reaches 32.74 Billion RMB, AI Computing Subscription Revenue Increases by 143% Year-on-Year On February 26th, Baidu Group announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025. The financial report shows that Baidu achieved a revenue of 32.74 billion RMB in the fourth quarter, slightly higher than the market's expectation of 32.66 billion RMB, with a 5% increase compared to the previous quarter. The total revenue for the year reached 129.1 billion RMB. Among them, the performance of intelligent cloud infrastructure was particularly outstanding. The revenue in the fourth quarter reached 5.8 billion RMB, with the subscription revenue of AI high-performance computing facilities increasing by 143% year-on-year. The annual revenue of intelligent cloud infrastructure was around 20 billion RMB, with a 34% year-on-year increase. In the financial report, Baidu stated that its differentiated full-stack end-to-end AI capabilities are increasingly recognized by more enterprise customers. 5. Visiting Yushu Technology with the Team! What Chinese Companies Did the German Chancellor Meet in Hangzhou? According to the Weibo account of Yuyuan Tan, on February 26th, German Chancellor Merkel had lunch with local entrepreneurs in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, along with her accompanying delegation. A pre-lunch group photo reveals a lot of information. The 10 Chinese companies participating in the photo are as follows: CHINT Group, Geely Holding Group, Alibaba Group, Rongsheng Petro Chemical Co., Ltd., Sanhua Holding Group, Leapmotor, Lind Engineering Asia Pacific, Yushu Technology, Strongbrain Technology, and MindPartner Technology. From traditional manufacturing to internet technology, from new energy vehicles to cutting-edge AI - this list almost summarizes the trajectory of China's industrial exploration. The new direction of China-Germany cooperation may also provide insights into the future. 6. Renminbi Exchange Rate Rises for Three Consecutive Times! Offshore Price Once Exceeds 6.83, Several Reasons Behind It The Renminbi exchange rate has risen for three consecutive times. On February 26th, during the Asian trading session, both the onshore and offshore Renminbi against the US dollar surpassed the 6.84 mark, with the offshore Renminbi even breaking through 6.83 at one point, setting a new high since April 2023. Orient Securities stated that there might be several reasons behind this: First, since November 2025, the stabilization of China-US economic and trade relations and the overall improvement of China's external environment have been important background factors for the Renminbi's recent strength. Secondly, recently, the US Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation against Federal Reserve Chairman Powell, leading to greater pressure on the independence of the Federal Reserve, and the advocacy of the new Fed chairman candidate for a "rate cut + balance sheet reduction" policy has not yet reversed the weakness of the US dollar. The weakness of the US dollar has led to a general appreciation of non-US currencies, including the Renminbi. Lastly, with the continuous appreciation of the Renminbi against the US dollar, the accumulated export surpluses have been released at an accelerated pace. 7. Several Lithium Companies Expect Zimbabwe Lithium Mine Exports to Resume Within a Month According to reports from Cailianshe, the Zimbabwe Ministry of Mines recently announced the suspension of all raw ore and lithium concentrate exports (including goods in transit). Industry analysis believes that this ban has presented a noticeable stage differentiation impact on the Chinese lithium battery industry chain, with current overall sentiment impact greater than actual supply impact. Sinomine Resource Group and Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group have stated that the ban on lithium mine exports in Zimbabwe is a phased measure, which is expected to resume within 1 to 4 weeks at the earliest, and currently, the companies have sufficient raw material inventories with limited impact on production operations. 8. State Administration for Market Regulation issues new regulations to crack down on ghost food delivery and false qualifications The State Administration for Market Regulation has issued the "Regulations on the Supervision and Management of Network Catering Service Operators' Implementation of Food Safety Main Responsibility", requiring food delivery platforms to conduct real-name registration of food delivery businesses and conduct substantive reviews of food business licenses and other operating qualification certificates of food delivery businesses through on-site inspections and other methods to ensure that the information on the operating qualification certificates of food delivery businesses matches the actual situation, rather than just conducting formal reviews. Regarding investment opportunities that are being focused on in the market: 1. AI Programming Boom! Huawei, Alibaba Increase Investment, What Is the Future Development of the Industry? Huawei Cloud's CodeArts intelligent coding agent public beta version was released, providing developers and enterprises with intelligent coding solutions with engineering capabilities. Previously, Alibaba Cloud launched the "Coding Plan" subscription service, which includes four open-source model API services, Qwen3.5, GLM-5, MiniMax M2.5, and Kimi K2.5, allowing users to freely switch between multiple models. A research report from Minsheng Securities suggests that AI programming has become one of the core applications where AI has first landed. Many domestic and international technology giants have launched AI programming-related products, and AI might lead to the disruption of its "creator" - AI programming. The continuous improvement of domestic open-source large models is expected to be an important foundation for the accelerated development of domestic IDE. Other sectors worth paying attention to include: 2. Storage | NAND flash supply falls short, Yangtze Memory requests customers to pay in advance. 3. Shipping | Shanghai issues detailed rules to promote the management of innovative funds for modern shipping services, promoting the development of shipping technology innovation. 4. Hainan Free Trade Zone | Hainan received 12.32 million visitors during the Spring Festival holiday, with the consumer market continuing to climb. In terms of announcements with a positive focus, consider focusing on NIO's subsidiary receiving nearly 2.3 billion yuan in investments, while announcements with a negative focus include keeping an eye on the delisting risk of Deppon Logistics. Negative-focused Announcements: 1. Deppon Logistics: Submitted an application to the Shanghai Stock Exchange to terminate its listing. 2. Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation: The company's stock price may be subject to market speculation driven by overly high emotions. 3. Xinyaqiang Silicon Chemistry: Shareholders plan to reduce their holdings by no more than 4% of the company's shares. 4. QIULE SEEDS: Shareholder Henan Nongtou plans to reduce their holdings by no more than 1.9975%. 5. Verisilicon Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.: Net loss of 528 million yuan in 2025, compared to a net loss of 601 million yuan in the same period last year. This article was originally published by "Tencent Stock Selection", GMTEight Editor: Li Fo.