The Year of the Wood Snake just kicked off, and China’s tech sector is already coiling for more strikes. Two homegrown champions — AI powerhouse DeepSeek and chip maker CXMT — have rattled global markets and devoured market share. The nation’s one-two punch has Wall Street recalibrating — as investors flood into the Hang Seng Tech Index.

• CXMT’s “snowballing” growth is threatening Korea’s dominance with a new DRAM playbook — surging from 0% to 5% of the $90B memory market in just four years, with Nomura analysts projecting a leap to 15% by the end of 2024.
• Meanwhile, “DeepSeek has significantly aroused international investors,” says a managing director at Alphalex Capital Management — sparking a renaissance moment in China’s tech as Beijing aims to slash reliance on foreign innovation.

Behind the strikes: While China’s tech stocks trade at just 17x earnings versus the Nasdaq 100’s 27x multiple, global investors are racing to narrow the gap — with June call options betting on a 16% surge in the Hang Seng Tech Index. With bullish bets outdoing bearish ones two-to-one on recent trading days, we could say the snake is learning to charm another one — Wall Street. Just remember, the deadliest strikes are the ones you don’t see coming.