Paytm leads tech rally; Morgan Stanley upgrades Baidu; Rivian adopts Tesla standard

Paytm [PAYTM.NS] has led a rally in Indian tech stocks: it now has a market value of $557.4bn, up $2.7bn since it raised its profitability earlier than expected. In a recent episode of Opto Sessions, Kevin T. Carter had expressed bullishness on the digital payments firm, while leading emerging market investor Mark Mobius recently celebrated India’s potential, highlighting its 7% growth rate. Elsewhere, Elon Musk met PM Narendra Modi yesterday during his visit to the US.

SoftBank share price up on AI announcement

Masayoshi Son’s Vision Fund, the most substantial pool of tech-focused capital in the world, has logged losses for five quarters in a row, but the SoftBank [9984.T] founder today announced that the fund is to dive into artificial intelligence (AI). The SoftBank share price jumped 3.7% after the announcement. Meanwhile, Ant Group has become the latest Chinese tech firm to declare that it is working on a large-language model to power ChatGPT-like functions.

Morgan Stanley upgrades Baidu

Morgan Stanley [MS] has upgraded Baidu [9888.HK] stock from ‘equal weight’ to ‘overweight’, saying that the Chinese search engine is “the most obvious beneficiary” of increased AI adoption in China. The company has seen solid demand for its Ernie bot, which already has 200,000 users. The Baidu share price jumped as much as 4.1% on the announcement — good news after Chinese tech stocks have been dragged by the country’s faltering economic revival.

Rivian to adopt Tesla charging standard

Tesla [TSLA] charging is fast becoming the electric vehicle (EV) industry standard: with a view to enabling customers to access the US’ biggest charging network, electric vehicle maker Rivian [RIVN] has said that it will adopt Tesla’s charging standard. It will also integrate a Tesla-style charging port. This week, Hyundai [005380.KS] has also announced it is considering making its cars compatible with the Tesla standard, while the state of Texas has required that charging stations include the Tesla plug.

Nio’s $738.5m Abu Dhabi cash injection

Chinese EV-maker Nio [9866.HK] has received $738.5m in capital from CYVN Holdings, bringing the Abu Dhabi-owned fund to a 7% stake in the firm. Nio said it expects the deal to close in early July. Elsewhere in the space, EV firms are rushing to buy up graphite — the largest component by weight in EV batteries — from sources outside China, among them Madagascar and Mozambique, Reuters reports.