Core Insights - International stocks outperformed U.S. stocks in 2025 after a decade of U.S. dominance, driven by currency fluctuations and a changing geopolitical environment [1] - Three international stocks are highlighted as potential strong performers in 2026: Restaurant Brands, Alibaba, and MercadoLibre [1] Group 1: Restaurant Brands (QSR) - Restaurant Brands was formed from a merger between Tim Horton's and Burger King, and has since acquired Popeye's and Firehouse Subs [1] - The company has shown slight weakness in recent quarters but is expected to benefit from a trade-down trend in dining due to inflation, potentially increasing foot traffic and margins [1] - The stock is considered a defensive growth option, currently trading at a discount to historical levels despite year-over-year revenue and earnings growth [1] Group 2: Alibaba (BABA) - Alibaba is a leading global growth stock with significant potential, driven by its core e-commerce business and artificial intelligence initiatives [1] - The company reported an 8% year-over-year revenue growth, with over 20% growth in its international e-commerce segment, which is a high-margin area [1] - Free cash flow margins reached 20% due to cost discipline, indicating strong financial health and future growth prospects [1] Group 3: MercadoLibre (MELI) - MercadoLibre is a major e-commerce and fintech player in Latin and South America, providing exposure to approximately $1 trillion in GDP [1] - The company achieved 35% year-over-year growth in its e-commerce business, supported by a 40% growth in its Mercado Pago segment [1] - With around $5 billion in annual free cash flow and world-class margins of about 12%, MercadoLibre is viewed as a strong investment opportunity [1]

Core Insights - MercadoLibre is focusing on logistics and fintech in Latin America, achieving a 39% revenue growth and generating $2.2 billion in free cash flow, while Alibaba is investing heavily in AI and cloud infrastructure, resulting in a 5% revenue growth but a significant net income drop of 53% [1] Financial Performance - MercadoLibre reported Q3 2025 revenue of $7.41 billion, a 39% year-over-year increase, with total payment volume reaching $71.2 billion, up 41% [1] - Alibaba's Q2 2026 revenue was $34.81 billion, only a 5% increase, with a net income decline of 53% and free cash flow turning negative at $3.1 billion [1] Strategic Focus - MercadoLibre is expanding its logistics network and investing in free shipping and social commerce initiatives, while maintaining positive cash flow [1] - Alibaba is prioritizing AI infrastructure and quick commerce, framing its current profitability challenges as investments for future growth [1] Market Positioning - MercadoLibre holds a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 48.5 and a forward multiple of 29.6, indicating strong investor confidence in its market share growth potential [1] - Alibaba trades at 20.5x trailing earnings and 17.2x forward earnings, which appears cheap but is overshadowed by a 51.8% year-over-year earnings decline [1] Risk-Reward Profiles - MercadoLibre's strategy is seen as less risky due to its positive cash flow and growth potential in a less penetrated e-commerce market [1] - Alibaba's investment thesis hinges on the stabilization of China's regulatory environment and the success of its AI investments, presenting a higher risk profile [1]

Core Insights - Over 130 million people in China experienced AI shopping for the first time during the Spring Festival, with "Qianwen help me" becoming a national-level AI assistant [1][2][3] Group 1: User Engagement and Growth - During the Spring Festival, AI ticket purchasing orders surged, with a 22-fold increase for event tickets and over 7-fold for flight tickets [3] - Movie ticket orders via AI skyrocketed by 372 times, particularly in third and fourth-tier cities, where orders increased by 782 times [3] - Nearly 400,000 users aged 60 and above engaged in AI shopping, indicating a broad demographic reach [3] Group 2: Ecosystem Integration - Qianwen integrates with Alibaba's ecosystem, including Taobao, Alipay, and other platforms, to enhance user service [3] - Future functionalities will include AI ride-hailing, mobile top-ups, and group buying [3] Group 3: Model Development and Performance - Alibaba launched the Qianwen 3.5 model, which is considered the strongest open-source model globally, achieving a significant leap from text-only to multimodal capabilities [5] - Qianwen 3.5 outperformed competitors in various benchmarks, scoring 87.8 in MMLU-Pro and 88.4 in GPQA, surpassing GPT-5.2 and Claude 4.5 respectively [5] - The model's performance in instruction-following and general agent evaluations also exceeded that of Gemini 3 Pro and GPT-5.2 [5]

文 | 慢放 2026年除夕夜后，中国AI的版图被彻底重塑。 如果AI竞争是一场长跑，阿里千问则在春节上演了一场"时间折叠"。字节豆包跑了1000天的DAU流量高地，被千问用82天便闪电追平。这一战，宣告中国 AI正式告别群雄混战，进入阿里、字节"双雄争霸"新纪元。 除夕夜大战更是精彩刺激。一边，阿里开源Qwen3.5-Plus，性能直取Gemini 3 Pro，登顶全球最强开源，以底层架构革新捅破技术天花板，同时用50亿次"千 问帮我"开启AI生活元年。另一边，豆包亮相春晚引导国民互动；此前发布的Seedance 2.0则瞄准"生产工具"，要帮普通人圆一个导演梦。 今年春节，阿里字节，一个"办事"一个"造梦"。千问大免单请客让无数普通人第一次体验了AI生活，而豆包试图在对话框里连接创意。一边用AI让柴米油盐 变得更便捷，另一边用AI帮普通人「圆导演梦」。这场双雄争霸的背后，是两种关于「AI该如何融入人类生活」的回答。 01「生活方式」 vs 「生产工具」 这和阿里的商业基因有关。过去20年，阿里干的就是「连接」的生意——连接买家和卖家，连接商家和消费者，连接线上和线下。现在，AI成了新的连接 器。千问要做的 ...

2月17日大年初一，千问发布双重重磅信息。数据显示，春节期间，全国超过1.3亿人首次体验AI购物， 用户累计说出"千问帮我"达50亿次，千问一跃成为国民级AI助手。同时，千问还宣布春节福利再加码， 面向所有用户推出"每日首单必减"活动，最低可减至3.8元，推动AI下单从节日尝鲜走向日常使用。 千问C端事业群总裁吴嘉昨日首次对外回应此次爆火背后的思考与战略布局。他表示，千问的目标并非 与谁"内卷"，而是让AI真正融入老百姓的日常生活场景，"这是未来一定会发生的事情。" 一场超乎预期的"AI压力测试" "用户说了多少次'千问帮我'，我每天都在看，这代表了用户心智的形成。"吴嘉强调，团队更关注的是 AI能否真正服务好用户的生活，而不是单纯的日活数据。 AI角色重塑：从"聊天"到"办事"，从尝鲜走向日常 随着第二波免单活动的启动，千问进一步接入飞猪、大麦、高德等阿里生态资源，用户开始主动跨品类 消费，甚至提出更复杂的需求，如春节行程安排、机酒预订等。 今年春节，阿里旗下AI应用"千问"凭借"一句话下单"和"春节大免单"活动，成为全民热议的现象级产 品。 2月6日千问首次推出免单活动时，实际效果远超预期，9小时订单便突 ...

Core Insights - Alibaba has officially open-sourced its new generation model Qwen3.5-Plus, which has been recognized as the "strongest source god" by AI enthusiasts, marking a significant leap from pure text models to native multimodal models [1][14] - During the Spring Festival, over 130 million people experienced AI shopping for the first time, with a total of 5 billion "Qwen help me" requests, establishing Qwen as a national-level AI assistant [15][17] Group 1: AI Model Development - Qwen3.5-Plus features a total of 397 billion parameters, with only 17 billion activated parameters, achieving high performance with a smaller parameter size, surpassing the trillion-parameter Qwen3-Max [20][24] - The model has undergone significant upgrades in capabilities, expanding training data across multiple languages and domains, and has outperformed leading closed-source products like GPT-5.2 and Gemini-3 Pro in various benchmarks [22][23] Group 2: User Engagement and Market Penetration - Qwen's daily active users (DAU) reached 73.52 million, surpassing competitors and achieving user scale comparable to industry leaders in less than two months [19] - AI ticket orders saw a 372-fold increase during the Spring Festival, with significant growth in orders from third- and fourth-tier cities, indicating strong market penetration [19][20] Group 3: Ecosystem Integration and Future Plans - Qwen can seamlessly integrate services across Alibaba's platforms, including Taobao, Alipay, and Fliggy, with plans to introduce additional features like AI taxi booking and mobile top-ups [20][24] - Alibaba's "Tongyun Ge" strategy, which combines its AI chip, cloud services, and model development, positions the company as a leading player in the AI landscape, aiming for comprehensive vertical integration [26][27]

Core Viewpoint - The Chinese AI industry is entering a new "Qianwen Cycle," marked by significant advancements and innovations, particularly led by Alibaba's Qianwen AI family, which is set to redefine AI applications and capabilities in the market [1][6][12]. Group 1: Model Development - Alibaba's Qianwen AI family has launched the Qianwen-Image-2.0 model, positioning it alongside leading models like Google's Nano Banana Pro and GPT Image 1.5 [4]. - The newly open-sourced Qianwen 3.5-Plus model features a total of 397 billion parameters, outperforming larger models like Qianwen 3-Max, and offers competitive performance against top closed-source models such as GPT-5.2 and Gemini-3-Pro [9]. - Qianwen has released over 400 open-source models, making it the most widely adopted open-source model globally, with a download count exceeding 1 billion [7][9]. Group 2: Application and Market Impact - The Qianwen App has initiated a "Spring Festival 3 billion free order" campaign, achieving over 10 million orders in just 9 hours, indicating a strong market response and consumer engagement [4]. - The app's focus has shifted from merely being a conversational AI to a more functional assistant, emphasizing the ability to perform tasks and meet user needs effectively [11]. - AI shopping, as a key feature of the Qianwen App, aims to connect users with resources in a streamlined manner, enhancing user experience and creating new consumption opportunities [11][12]. Group 3: Strategic Vision - Alibaba is addressing fundamental questions about the capabilities and responsibilities of AI, aiming to guide the future direction of Chinese AI development [6][12]. - The "Qianwen Cycle" represents a commitment to making advanced AI accessible to small businesses and individuals, fostering a more inclusive technological landscape [14]. - The overarching goal is to integrate advanced technology with everyday applications, ensuring that AI serves practical human needs while driving innovation [14].

Core Insights - Alibaba has launched its new AI model Qwen3.5-Plus, which competes with top closed-source models like Gemini-3-pro and GPT-5.2, marking a significant advancement in the AI landscape [1] - During the Spring Festival, over 130 million people experienced AI shopping for the first time, with the AI assistant "Qianwen" becoming a national-level tool [1] - Qwen3.5-Plus features a total of 397 billion parameters, with only 17 billion activated, achieving performance that surpasses models with over a trillion parameters while reducing deployment memory usage by 60% [1][4] Model Performance and Innovation - Qwen3.5 represents a generational leap from previous models, transitioning from a pure text model to a native multimodal model, significantly enhancing its capabilities in various assessments [2] - The model has shown superior performance in multiple evaluations, including general agent assessments and visual question answering, outperforming competitors like Gemini 3 Pro and GPT-5.2 [2][3] - Key innovations in Qwen3.5's architecture include a mixed MoE structure and a unified approach to handling multiple data modalities during pre-training, resulting in a more efficient model with lower parameter requirements [4] Market Impact and User Engagement - The Qianwen app has seen a dramatic increase in user engagement, with a 22-fold increase in AI ticket orders and a 372-fold increase in movie ticket orders during the Spring Festival [6] - Nearly half of all AI orders came from county-level cities, indicating a broadening user base and accessibility of AI technology [6] - The app's integration with Qwen3.5-Plus enhances its capabilities, allowing it to assist users in various tasks, thus increasing its utility in daily life [6] Infrastructure and Ecosystem - Alibaba has opened over 400 Qianwen models since 2023, with global downloads surpassing 1 billion, fostering a robust developer ecosystem [8] - The company’s self-developed AI chip "Zhenwu 810E" is optimized for training and inference of large models, contributing to the cost-effectiveness of Qwen3.5 [9] - Alibaba Cloud holds a 35.8% market share in China's AI cloud market, indicating its leading position and the growing demand for AI infrastructure [10] Long-term Strategy and Vision - Qwen3.5 is part of Alibaba's broader strategy towards achieving AGI, with ongoing exploration of all-in-one multimodal capabilities [5][7] - The dual approach of advancing cutting-edge models while making AI accessible to everyday users reflects Alibaba's commitment to integrating technology into daily life [11]

Group 1 - Kimi is set to complete a new financing round of over $700 million, following a previous $500 million round just over a month ago [1] - The latest financing round is led by existing shareholders including Alibaba, Tencent, Wuyuan, and Jiua [1] - Kimi's valuation has doubled to exceed $10 billion, with the total amount raised in the last two rounds reaching over $1.2 billion, marking the highest financing amount in the large model industry in the past year [1]

Group 1 - The core viewpoint of the article highlights the significant rise of the AI shopping assistant "Qianwen" during the Spring Festival, with over 130 million people experiencing it for the first time and making 5 billion requests for assistance [2] - The article notes a remarkable increase in AI-driven ticket purchases, with orders for movie tickets rising by 372 times and those from third and fourth-tier cities surging by 782 times, indicating a shift in user behavior towards AI services [2] - The integration of Qianwen with Alibaba's ecosystem, including platforms like Taobao and Alipay, allows it to serve a wide range of user needs, with plans for future functionalities such as AI ride-hailing and mobile top-ups [2] Group 2 - Data from QuestMobile shows that on February 7, Qianwen's daily active users (DAU) reached 73.52 million, nearly matching the 78.71 million of its competitor, indicating a rapid shift in user habits towards AI task execution rather than just chat interactions [3] - Alibaba's release of the new model Qwen 3.5-Plus, which competes with Gemini 3 Pro, signifies a dual breakthrough for Alibaba's AI capabilities during the Spring Festival, both in terms of model performance and application usage [3]