China’s AI stock bubble is popping, and the data is overwhelming. Since its peak in late June, China’s Star 50 AI stock index has declined 42%.
China’s tech sector, per the country’s CSI 300 index, is down 18%.
Both indices are drastically underperforming the benchmark decline of 1.5% for the Nasdaq 100 index over the same period.
Publicly traded stocks in China’s AI sector with mainland operations, as major constituents of these indices, are leading the declines.
AI model developer MiniMax is one particularly egregious example. Its shares closed trading in Hong Kong on Thursday at 87% below their HK$1,330 high earlier this year.
Unisound, a Chinese AI speech technology and language model software company, has experienced a similar drawdown from its 2026 peak.
Combined market capitalization losses by 14 Chinese AI stocks are $340 billion below their 2026 highs.
Drawdowns were so bad that only three companies out of 14 had “good” enough performances to have declined less than 50%.
To ensure relevance to China’s publicly-traded AI sector, Protos limited its list to companies with substantial mainland China operations whose financials demonstrate a majority of revenue coming from AI models, AI software or AI computer chips.
A partner at Shanghai Zhuozhu Investment Management admitted to the carnage in Chinese AI stocks. “All bubbles inevitably burst,” they said. Lotus Asset Management’s Hong Hao warned that many mainland AI stock listings are being paused.
AI stocks are still roughly 40% of China’s stock market. Bank of America’s Alex Liu told Bloomberg, “Right now it’s actually hard to say who’s going to survive.”
Read more: Bank stocks crashed by $22 billion after AI access scare
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