Asian Hedge Fund Manager, Long Short Equity, Macro

David Mudd

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>DC company share prices are rolling over, foreshadowing increasing pressure on their hyperscaler customers.  Since the July swoon in semiconductor stocks, the DC sector has underperformed both hyperscalers and semiconductors.</li>
<li>DC players face strong headwinds on multiple fronts, including high leverage/circular financing, supply chain delays, public opposition, and questions about aggressive forecasts of future compute demand.</li>
<li>Leverage is the most prominent risk in the DC sector, with questions looming about completion dates and customers' ability to meet their contracted offtake agreements.</li>
</ul>


DC company share prices are rolling over, foreshadowing increasing pressure on their hyperscaler customers.  Since the July swoon in semiconductor stocks, the DC sector has underperformed both hyperscalers and semiconductors.
DC players face strong headwinds on multiple fronts, including high leverage/circular financing, supply chain delays, public opposition, and questions about aggressive forecasts of future compute demand.
Leverage is the most prominent risk in the DC sector, with questions looming about completion dates and customers' ability to meet their contracted offtake agreements.


DATA CENTER SECTOR: From the Tip of the Spear to Canary in the Coal Mine

Listed Real Estate Asia, KT Capital Group

Jacob Cheng

Listed Real Estate Asia

KT Capital Group

Principal investments and advisory firm that focuses on connecting the CIS countries with East Asia.

Principal investments and advisory firm

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>Validation of power scarcity: The Macquarie, GIC, and Anthropic deal proves grid access is the ultimate moat, establishing a massive valuation floor for existing powered data center assets.</li>
<li>Disintermediation threat: Sovereign funds acting as direct developers bypass traditional REITs, structurally shrinking the future pipeline of stabilized mega-assets available for public market drop-downs.</li>
<li>Asian operators hold the keys: Developers like GDS with actionable power pipelines in high-demand corridors are prime targets for sovereign joint ventures, offering desperately needed grid access.</li>
</ul>


Validation of power scarcity: The Macquarie, GIC, and Anthropic deal proves grid access is the ultimate moat, establishing a massive valuation floor for existing powered data center assets.
Disintermediation threat: Sovereign funds acting as direct developers bypass traditional REITs, structurally shrinking the future pipeline of stabilized mega-assets available for public market drop-downs.
Asian operators hold the keys: Developers like GDS with actionable power pipelines in high-demand corridors are prime targets for sovereign joint ventures, offering desperately needed grid access.


Macquarie, GIC, Anthropic: A Sovereign Threat: How the Theseus AI Deal Rewires Data Center Equities

Equity Research Analyst - Long-Short

Raj S, CA, CFA

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Policy clarity and domestic GPU shift remove key overhangs; China’s AI build-out proceeding under self-reliance base case.</li>
<li>AI token usage doubling every 3–6 months makes hyperscaler capex upgrades inevitable over the coming quarters - a key catalyst driving order wins.</li>
<li>VNET’s 400 MW annual additions and REIT monetisation support 25–30% EBITDA CAGR per consensus; re-rating to 13-15x EV/ EBITDA from current 11x EV/EBITDA implies potential of 90% upside.</li>
</ul>


Policy clarity and domestic GPU shift remove key overhangs; China’s AI build-out proceeding under self-reliance base case.
AI token usage doubling every 3–6 months makes hyperscaler capex upgrades inevitable over the coming quarters - a key catalyst driving order wins.
VNET’s 400 MW annual additions and REIT monetisation support 25–30% EBITDA CAGR per consensus; re-rating to 13-15x EV/ EBITDA from current 11x EV/EBITDA implies potential of 90% upside.


VNET Group (VNET US) - Re-Rating On: Clarity on Chips, Geopolitics, and Hyperscaler Capex

<ul>
<li>China's cloud companies like <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kingsoft-cloud-holdings-limited" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:36647:1" rel="noopener">Kingsoft Cloud Holdings (3896 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ming-yuan-cloud-group" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29268:1" rel="noopener">Ming Yuan Cloud Group (909 HK)</a> benefit from the democratization of AI its concurrent increased data needs.</li>
<li>China's telecom companies like <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-mobile-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27:1" rel="noopener">China Mobile (941 HK)</a> , <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-unicom-hong-kong-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1016:1" rel="noopener">China Unicom Hong Kong (762 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-telecom-corp-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1015:1" rel="noopener">China Telecom (H) (728 HK)</a> are now major players in the country's AI ecosystem.</li>
<li>China's data center companies like GDS Holdings (9698 HK) , 21Vianet Group (VNET US) , and SUNeVision Holdings (1686 HK) are benefiting from the increased data needs of AI industry.</li>
</ul>


China's cloud companies like Kingsoft Cloud Holdings (3896 HK) and Ming Yuan Cloud Group (909 HK) benefit from the democratization of AI its concurrent increased data needs.
China's telecom companies like China Mobile (941 HK) , China Unicom Hong Kong (762 HK) and China Telecom (H) (728 HK) are now major players in the country's AI ecosystem.
China's data center companies like GDS Holdings (9698 HK) , 21Vianet Group (VNET US) , and SUNeVision Holdings (1686 HK) are benefiting from the increased data needs of AI industry.


Deepseek Rally Creates Winners in CLOUD, TELECOM and DATA CENTERS

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One, Periscope Analytics

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One

Periscope Analytics

Periscope Analytics focuses on event-driven trades across Asia Pacific and provides comprehensive, timely and systematic coverage of index changes to major Asia Pacific indices in a structured manner.

The analysis includes forecasted inclusions and exclusions to all major Asian indices that have significant amount of tracking assets, including estimates of passive buy/sell flow on the stocks. The service also provides commentary and impact of market consultations, ground rule changes, and other events (IPOs, spin-offs, M&A) that could lead to index changes and passive flow.

Periscope Analytics works with multi-strategy hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, stat arb trading groups and long-only investors that invest and trade in the Asia Pacific region with the data being used to trade index rebalances, avoid pre-positioning and passive flow, and to time entry into and exit from stocks.

Event-Driven Trades Across Asia Pacific

Index Rebalance

Ping An Healthcare and Technology / Index Rebalance

Ping An Healthcare and Technology (1833 HK)

<ul>
<li>The review period for the December rebalance of the CSI Overseas China Internet Index ended 31 October. The changes should be announced 28 November and implemented close on 12 December.</li>
<li>There could be 6 inclusions for the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kraneshares-csi-china-internet-etf" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28208:1" rel="noopener">KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB US)</a> in December with most inclusions being high probability.</li>
<li>Impact on the inclusions varies between 1.3-5 days of ADV. There will be stocks with float increases and some capping changes.</li>
</ul>


The review period for the December rebalance of the CSI Overseas China Internet Index ended 31 October. The changes should be announced 28 November and implemented close on 12 December.
There could be 6 inclusions for the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB US) in December with most inclusions being high probability.
Impact on the inclusions varies between 1.3-5 days of ADV. There will be stocks with float increases and some capping changes.


KWEB Index Rebalance Preview: Bunch of Potential Inclusions in December

China

VNET Group, Inc. provides carrier-neutral Internet data center services. The Company hosts its customers' servers and networking equipment, as well as provides interconnectivity to enable customers to deliver data across the Internet. VNET Group conducts business in Beijing, China.

Price Gauge
52-week Range	0.00 - 0.00
Market Cap (USDm)	0.00
P/E	0.00
Dividend (Yield)	0.00

VNET Group (VNET US)

DATA CENTER SECTOR: From the Tip of the Spear to Canary in the Coal Mine

The sudden plunge in demand for an Nvidia-backed data center company’s initial public offering is revealing fresh cracks in the AI funding boom....

David Mudd

Macquarie, GIC, Anthropic: A Sovereign Threat: How the Theseus AI Deal Rewires Data Center Equities

Validation of power scarcity: The Macquarie, GIC, and Anthropic deal proves grid access is the ultimate moat, establishing a massive valuation...

Jacob Cheng