Amid recent artificial intelligence sector turbulence, CNBC’s Jim Cramer wondered if Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) might be the next Chinese tech giant to draw market focus.

What Happened: He posed the question on X on Thursday, writing, “First, it was DeepSeek, then it was BABA, and next, maybe Baidu?”

The observation comes as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) shares surged 6.39% to $102.91 on Thursday, driven by growing investor confidence in its Qwen 2.5-Max AI model. Alibaba’s latest AI iteration has reportedly outperformed DeepSeek-V3 in multiple benchmarks, including Arena Hard, LiveBench, and GPQA-Diamond tests.

The market repositioning follows a tumultuous period triggered by DeepSeek’s disruptive entrance, which initially caused a massive tech sector selloff. NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) saw nearly $600 billion erased from its market value on Monday before staging an 8.82% recovery on Tuesday.

Why It Matters: DeepSeek, which emerged from the $8 billion quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, had claimed to match OpenAI’s performance at significantly lower costs, developing its R1 model for just $5.6 million using lower-end Nvidia chips. However, sustainability concerns have since dampened enthusiasm for DeepSeek-linked investments.

The shifting landscape has caught the attention of prominent market observers. “Black Swan” author Nassim Taleb warned investors about the fragility of wealth concentration in technology stocks, suggesting at Miami Hedge Fund Week that potential drawdowns could be “two or three times bigger” than Monday’s selloff.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly in discussions with SoftBank Group (OTC:SFTBY) for a potential $40 billion funding round at a $300 billion valuation, highlighting the intense competition in the AI space. OpenAI has accused DeepSeek of using its proprietary models without authorization, adding another layer of complexity to the evolving narrative.

Price Action: Baidu closed at $94.77 on Thursday, gaining 5.76% for the day. In after-hours trading, the stock dipped slightly by 0.047%, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.