Highlights for this morning: Intel seeks Apple's backing, Chery IPO, Alibaba strengthens AI

China's Chery has a successful IPO in Hong Kong, raising $1.2 billion and stepping up expansion into Europe and the Middle East despite global tariff barriers. Intel is trying to turn around its business with the support of the U.S. government and is looking for new investors, including Apple, following investments by Nvidia and SoftBank. These and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of September 25.

Intel is in talks with Apple about possible investments and expansion of cooperation, sources told Bloomberg. Although the agreement is still at an early stage, the news itself raised Intel shares by 6.4%. Earlier, Nvidia ($5 billion) and SoftBank ($2 billion) have already invested in the company, and the U.S. government bought 10% of shares, betting on the revival of domestic production of chips.

Despite the influx of funds, Intel faces serious challenges: loss of technological leadership, increased competition from AMD and Nvidia, staff cuts and project freezes. Attempts to develop contract chip production are stalled due to a lack of customers, although the strategy under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan remains in place.

For Apple, Intel's support could be part of a drive to strengthen domestic manufacturing in the US. Tim Cook recently said that he would "love to see Intel come back" and emphasized that Apple's investments in US projects ($600 billion over 4 years) should create a "domino effect" for the entire industry.

China's largest car exporter Chery Automobile raised HK$9.1 billion ($1.2 billion) in an IPO in Hong Kong. The shares rose 11% to the offering price in debut trading, CNBC reported. A ceremony at the stock exchange center was canceled due to the effects of super typhoon Ragasa.

The company is actively expanding abroad: in November, its Jetour brand will enter Europe via Poland, and models under the Chery, Jaecoo and Omoda brands are already on sale in Britain. According to experts, production sites in different countries give Chery an advantage over many Chinese automakers.

Trade barriers remain the main challenge: the US and Canada have imposed 100 percent duties on Chinese electric cars, while the EU has imposed duties of up to 45.3 percent. However, localization of production in the Middle East and Southeast Asia reduces risks for Chery, which sold almost 243,000 cars in August, more than half of them abroad.

Alibaba's stock rose 8% to a nearly four-year high after CEO Eddie Wu announced that the company will increase spending on artificial intelligence beyond the previously promised $53 billion, Yahoo Finance reported. Wu emphasized that global investment in AI could reach $4 trillion over five years, and Alibaba has an obligation to match that pace.

The company unveiled a new multimodal open-source model, Qwen3-Omni, and announced a partnership with Nvidia to use its tools to train robotics and unmanned transportation systems. In parallel, Alibaba is building up its cloud business: new data centers will appear in Brazil, France and the Netherlands, which should strengthen its position in the global competition with Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta.

The market optimism was also reinforced by the purchase of Cathie Wood: Ark Invest invested more than $16 million in Alibaba shares for the first time since 2021, the publication recalls. Over the past year, the company's securities have more than doubled in value, helped by a 26% increase in cloud revenue and a bet on AI as a new driver of development.

Lithium Americas shares jumped 95% after Reuters reports that the Trump administration is considering buying up to 10% in the company that is developing the largest lithium deposit in the US, Thacker Pass, Yahoo Finance writes. The project previously received a $2.26 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, the terms of which allow the government to take control of it in case of delays or cost overruns.

As part of the negotiations Lithium Americas offered the administration options for 10% of shares without payment, and also discussed guarantees of purchases from General Motors, which has already invested $625 million and owns 38% in the project. For GM this news resulted in growth of quotations by 2%.

The Nevada project is due to start up in 2028 and produce more than 40,000 tons of lithium carbonate annually - eight times the current volumes of the only operating mine in the US. Authorities see the development of lithium mining and processing as key to reducing dependence on China, which now accounts for more than 65% of global processing.

- Japan's broad Topix index rose 0.3%. The benchmark Nikkei 225 was almost unchanged.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was down 0.2 percent, while the Kosdaq small-company index fell 0.9 percent.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed.

- Futures on the S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent, the Nasdaq 100 was little changed and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 percent.

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