Stocks to buy

Investors are once again warming to Chinese stocks. Now that the government in Beijing has eased up on its crackdown, some investors expect a rebound.

This makes sense given that China is home to many of the largest and most innovative companies in the world. Chinese firms are among the leaders in all areas of tech. CC

China also remains the world’s biggest consumer market and an industrial powerhouse. The country ended Covid-19 restrictions and the economy is forecast to grow 5.4% this year.

Now may indeed be a good time for investors to take positions in Chinese stocks and ride a recovery to future profits. Here are three Chinese stocks that will crush their competition by 2030.

BABA Alibaba $80.97
LI Li Auto $28.16
BIDU Baidu $126.08

Alibaba (BABA)

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Now that officials in Beijing have eased up on their crackdown of publicly traded companies, Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) is trying to get its business, and stock, back on track.

The e-commerce giant just announced plans to spin-off its $12 billion cloud division as a separate, publicly traded company. News of the cloud spin-off comes as Alibaba issued disappointing quarterly earnings.

While the company’s earnings per share (EPS) rose 35% from a year earlier, they came in below Wall Street’s consensus forecasts. Revenue also missed the mark.

BABA stock slumped 6% on the latest earnings disappointment. Prior to that dip, the company’s share price had been flat over the last 12 months, though it is 73% below an all-time high reached in October 2020.

The company is planning to shed several of its operating units so that it can concentrate on its core e-commerce business while expanding into generative AI with its “Tongyi Qianwen” large language model.

At least one investor is buying in. Michael Burry of  “Big Short” fame doubled his stake in BABA stock in Q1.

Li Auto (LI)

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Another area where China is racing ahead is in the electric vehicle (EV) sector. Among China’s homegrown EV makers, Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) is leading the pack.

Spurred by robust orders and deliveries, LI stock has gained 66% over the last six months, including a 40% increase this year. The stock has been on a tear ever since the company reported that its electric vehicle deliveries rose 516% in April from a year earlier.

Li Auto’s stock suffered during Covid-19 imposed shutdowns of its factories in China. However, the company has come roaring back as pandemic measures have eased.

Baidu (BIDU)

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Tech firm Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) remains China’s leading AI company. Early unveilings of the company’s chatbot were underwhelming and hurt the stock.

Baidu could come roaring back once it gets the technology right, though. Key will be for Baidu to prove that it can compete against U.S. players in the A.I. space such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG / NASDAQ:GOOGL).

Like its U.S. competitors, Baidu has been unveiling more A.I. capabilities in recent weeks as it seeks to integrate the technology in more of its products.

The company showed how its chatbot summarizes financial statements and produces PowerPoint presentations with simple voice commands.

The company says it is seeing huge demand for its Ernie Bot A.I. platform, with more than 120,000 companies in China signing up to test it. BIDU stock has gained 32% in the last six months, including a 4% rise so far in 2023.

On the date of publication, Joel Baglole held long positions in MSFT and GOOGL. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Joel Baglole has been a business journalist for 20 years. He spent five years as a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal, and has also written for The Washington Post and Toronto Star newspapers, as well as financial websites such as The Motley Fool and Investopedia.