Blind-box craze and buybacks fuel POP MART surge; Musk says 'Robotaxi will be ubiquitous in the US this year' | Daily News Recap

0123 | Dolphin Research Focus:

🐬 Stocks

1.$BABA-W(09988.HK)

Following BIDU Kunlun Chip’s IPO prep, the market reported last night that Alibaba is weighing a restructuring of its chip unit Pingtouge, aiming for a standalone listing, with no official comment yet. Pingtouge focuses on chip design, spanning a full stack from Xuantie CPUs to Yitian server chips, and its PPU has shown standout performance with large-scale commercial adoption, sending Alibaba shares up over 2%.

2.$POP MART(09992.HK)

POP MART shares have rallied for several sessions. Its 2026 Valentine’s Day limited blind box series ‘Starman Heartbeat’ went viral, with the hidden edition ‘Grow Old Together’ jumping on Dewu from RMB 89 to RMB 699 (+6.8x), while regular editions also saw ~2.2x markups.At the same time, the ‘PUCKY Knock-Knock’ electronic wood fish plush blind box became a social hit as a stress-relief toy, with hidden editions up over 200% and dubbed a ‘workplace healing gadget’. Two buybacks this week totaling ~HK$350 mn underscored management’s confidence and further lifted sentiment.

3.$XIAOMI-W(01810.HK)

On Jan 22, Xiaomi announced an agreement with an independent broker to repurchase up to HK$2.5 bn of Class B shares on the HKEX, with all repurchased shares to be cancelled, and obtained two HKEX waivers allowing buybacks during blackout periods. This marks Xiaomi’s 44th buyback in the past four months, with prior buybacks exceeding RMB 7.4 bn in aggregate.The sizable program and waivers signal strong confidence in the outlook, help stabilize the stock amid depressed HK valuations, and cancellation is directly accretive to shareholders.

4.$NVIDIA(NVDA.US)

CEO Jensen Huang confirmed for the first time that NVIDIA has surpassed Apple to become TSMC’s largest customer. Surging global AI compute demand has driven a sharp increase in NVIDIA’s foundry orders, with advanced-node capacity tilting toward the company.

5.$Tesla(TSLA.US)

At Davos on Jan 22, Elon Musk said Tesla has deployed Optimus robots in factories for material handling and other simple tasks, projecting they could tackle complex industrial work by end-2026 with a stepwise ramp plan. He also indicated Robotaxi could see large-scale deployment in the US this year.

6.$Tesla(TSLA.US)

Amazon plans to begin a new round of layoffs next week, cutting thousands of roles across AWS, Retail, and Prime Video as the second phase of its 30k headcount reduction after eliminating 14k white-collar roles last Oct. The cuts focus on streamlining corporate functions to reduce costs and bureaucracy, which should lift near-term profitability expectations.

7.$ByteDance(BYTED.NA) /$Oracle(ORCL.US)

TikTok announced a US data security JV responsible for US data protection and algorithm security. Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX will each hold 15%, while ByteDance will own 19.9% as the largest single shareholder, retain algorithm IP, and license it to the JV, with TikTok US handling e-comm and ads businesses.

8. Dolphin Research: Earnings and Call Trans

Intel: 'Intel: AI CPU Hype Meets a Chilly Guide?', 'Intel (Trans): No Announced Foundry Clients Yet; Facing Supply Constraints'

🐬 Top Gainers by Sector

A-share: drug retailers, precious metals & minerals, forest products;

HK: forest products, industrial gases, highways - passenger transport;

US: silver, precious metals & minerals, diversified chemicals.

🐬 Watchlist for Tomorrow

1. None.

Risk disclosure and statement: Dolphin Research Disclaimer and General Disclosure