Highlights for the morning: Alibaba rally, Hitachi's partnership with OpenAI and a $40 billion deal

Hitachi's stock price soared by almost 10% after the announcement of its partnership with OpenAI. OpenAI's Sora 2 app instantly broke into the top of the App Store and reignited the debate about the safety of AI innovations. Stock managers see potential for a further Alibaba rally. These and other topics are covered in our review of key events on the morning of October 3.

Stock managers see potential for Alibaba to rally further after the company's 2025 capitalization has already surged by $250 billion, making it the main beneficiary of China's AI boom, Bloomberg reports.

Alibaba's US securities have more than doubled in price, although they remain 65% cheaper than their 2020 peak. "We expect this undervaluation in portfolios to change," says Gam Investment Management fund manager Jian Shi Cortesi, who still sees "significant upside potential" for Alibaba. - Sentiment [in the market] could also be fueled by fear of missing out on gains amid a strong equity rally."

The company is aggressively ramping up its AI investments, with CEO Eddie Wu announcing a $53 billion expansion over three years and the cloud division posting a 26% revenue growth to become the fastest growing in the group. Alibaba stands out in China as a rare player with its own large language models, access to chips and cloud infrastructure. On the back of the success of the DeepSeek project earlier this year, the stock has become a favorite with local investors, while foreign funds are just starting to return - including Cathie Wood, who opened a position for the first time in four years.

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), part of BlackRock, is in final talks to buy Macquarie-backed Aligned Data Centers, Bloomberg wrote. The deal could value the company at about $40 billion and would be one of the largest in 2025. MGX, the investment arm of the Mubadala fund, which has invested in Aligned before, is also involved in the talks.

Interest in data centers is growing rapidly following investments in AI: market participants are actively entering Nvidia, SK Hynix, OpenAI, Anthropic and other infrastructure companies. However, some analysts warn about the risk of a bubble, as construction costs outpace the actual distribution and monetization of AI services.

Digital infrastructure remains one of the most attractive assets for global investors, combining stability and growth, the agency points out. But amid record valuations, the question arises whether new capacity will exceed demand in the future, the article says.

Hitachi shares jumped nearly 10% after announcing a strategic alliance with OpenAI, Bloomberg reported. The cooperation will cover energy, power grid operations, cooling systems, data storage and the Lumada digital platform. The parties signed a memorandum of understanding on Oct. 2, a Japanese company spokesman said. The partnership could strengthen Hitachi's power segment with new orders and revitalize its data storage division.

The growth of Japanese corporations' ties with US AI leaders has catalyzed a new rally in the Tokyo market. Fujitsu also strengthened its partnership with Nvidia, which lifted its shares by more than 5%. Experts note that investors are no longer reacting to expectations, but to specific data center expansion projects, the agency points out.

A TikTok-like video generation app based on the new Sora 2, which OpenAI released this week, has become the third most downloaded app in the App Store despite being closed to invites, CNBC reports. At the same time, it created a wave of dipfakes, including a viral video featuring OpenAI head Sam Altman.

Sora 2 generates longer and more realistic clips and features multi-level filters and watermarks, but users are already finding ways around it, the channel notes.

Inside the company, the launch has reignited the debate over how to reconcile creative freedom and strict security measures, CNBC reports. Critics point out that OpenAI is moving faster than its own restrictors, and the use of copyrighted material without the explicit consent of copyright holders has prompted lawsuits. Still, Altman insists that an early launch is necessary for both transparency and funding for future projects.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 1.3%, while the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.5%.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index rose 2.7%, while the Kosdaq small-company index rose 1.1%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4 percent.

- Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.3 percent, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones contracts were up about 0.2 percent.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor