EMQQ Global Performance Overview
The leading positive contributors to performance for the EMQQ Index in April came from India’s Reliance and Alibaba. Reliance got a boost from its best quarterly growth in three years on the back of positive momentum across its digital businesses in India, while Alibaba continues to go from strength to strength with a series of new AI launches, including a more powerful AI model release (Qwen 3.6). More of that below.
The two largest detractors for the month were Tencent and PDD Holdings, the leading e-commerce company behind the “Temu” brand. The former pulled back despite a strong set of quarterly results, in which revenues rose 14% while earnings accelerated an even faster 21%, all while boosting AI expenditure. Meanwhile, PDD is coming off a relatively slow 2025, but management has pointed to accelerated growth for the year ahead and beyond.
Sources: Bloomberg, Company financials
At a Glance:
Alibaba + Tencent in Talks to Invest in Deepseek, China’s ChatGPT
Chart of the Month
Alibaba + Tencent in Talks to Invest in Deepseek, China’s ChatGPT
Alibaba and Tencent are reportedly in talks to invest in AI startup DeepSeek at a valuation exceeding $20 billion, highlighting accelerating momentum in China’s AI sector. DeepSeek develops large language models and a chatbot similar in concept to ChatGPT, with competitive performance and significantly lower training costs. Its latest models have gained rapid adoption among developers and enterprises, positioning it as one of the leading emerging AI platforms in China. The potential investment is important because it signals that China’s largest internet companies are doubling down on AI as a core growth driver. By backing leading model developers like DeepSeek, Alibaba and Tencent can further integrate AI into cloud, advertising, and enterprise solutions, unlocking new monetization opportunities. More broadly, this reflects a shift toward AI becoming a central pillar of growth across China’s tech sector, with rising adoption expected to drive revenue expansion, efficiency gains, and new product innovation over the coming years.
Nubank Hits 127 Million Customers in Latin America
Nubank’s rise to 127 million customers underscores its emergence as the leading digital financial platform in Latin America, driven by an AI-first operating model and rapid SME expansion. What began as a disruptive Brazilian fintech has evolved into a pan-regional powerhouse, with deep penetration in Brazil and accelerating growth in Mexico and Colombia. The integration of Hyperplane’s AI capabilities marks a shift toward “money platforming,” enabling real-time risk assessment, hyper-personalized products, and predictive financial services. This infrastructure is helping Nubank scale efficiently while deepening engagement across lending, payments, and lifestyle services. At the same time, expansion into SMEs is opening a large, underpenetrated segment, supporting both customer growth and monetization. Strong financial results—including rising profitability and high returns on equity—suggest Nubank is not only gaining scale, but translating its AI-driven model into sustainable earnings growth.
India’s Eternal Gets A Growth Bump from Quick Commerce
Eternal, the parent of Zomato and Blinkit, delivered a standout Q4, highlighting the strength of India’s food delivery and quick commerce opportunity. The company reported a 346% year-over-year surge in net profit, while revenue rose 64%, reflecting strong demand and improving scale economics. Growth was driven by rapid expansion in Blinkit (the company’s ultra-fast 10-minute e-commerce arm), where improving margins and scale are beginning to unlock profitability, with the business turning EBITDA positive for the first time. At the same time, the core food delivery segment continued to recover, with order growth accelerating and operating leverage improving. Looking ahead, Eternal’s focus on quick commerce, alongside continued efficiency gains, positions it to capture a large and growing share of India’s digital consumption. Management’s ambition to significantly scale order value over the next few years reinforces a strong long-term growth trajectory.
Alibaba Unveils Upgraded and More Powerful AI Model
Alibaba’s release of its latest Qwen AI models marks a meaningful step forward in China’s rapidly accelerating AI landscape. The new Qwen3.6 series, launched in April, introduces major upgrades in reasoning, coding, and “agentic AI” capabilities—allowing systems to autonomously execute complex tasks rather than simply respond to prompts. Importantly, the models deliver competitive performance while significantly lowering costs, making AI more scalable for developers and enterprises. This is strategically important for Alibaba, as Qwen sits at the center of its AI ecosystem, driving demand across cloud, enterprise software, and digital services. More capable and cost-efficient models can accelerate adoption, deepen integration across Alibaba’s platforms, and unlock new monetization opportunities. More broadly, continued progress in models like Qwen highlights how AI is becoming a core growth engine for China’s tech sector, supporting innovation, productivity gains, and long-term revenue expansion.
Despite strong growth in 2025 and accelerating gains across its AI businesses, several Chinese internet firms are trading at or near multi-year lows. Case in point is pictured below. Tencent, China’s largest internet firm, is trading close to its lowest levels over the past decade on a forward earnings basis.
Source: Bloomberg, Company Financials