Technology stocks led gains in Asia-Pacific markets on Wednesday, following overnight advances on Wall Street as investor concerns eased over the emergence of a low-cost Chinese AI model that some believe could challenge U.S. dominance in the industry, Lawrence Delevingne and Kevin Buckland reported for Reuters.

Trading volume in Asia was lower due to Lunar New Year holidays, which closed exchanges in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. I Screenshot: Taiwan Stock Exchange
Trading volume in Asia was lower due to Lunar New Year holidays, which closed exchanges in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea.
Japan’s Nikkei share average rose 0.5% as of 00:55 GMT, positioning it to snap a three-day losing streak. Australia’s stock benchmark added 0.8%, with a subindex of tech stocks climbing 2.2%.
Futures for the U.S. S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were each down about 0.1%, following gains of 0.9% and 2%, respectively, in the previous trading session.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq had tumbled more than 3% in the previous session after the growing popularity of DeepSeek’s AI model raised concerns over the lofty valuations of Nvidia and other leading U.S. AI chipmakers.
“There appeared to be a level of relief in the rally, mostly because of a forming consensus that, while ostensibly impressive, DeepSeek will likely lack the scalability to truly disrupt the AI space. If anything, its low-cost model may actually increase demand for GPUs,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.
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