Carter: Global investors are looking outside the United States

Market Trends & Investment Opportunities - Overseas markets in Asia, including Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, have shown outperformance in the last month [1] - Global investors have been looking outside of the US for various reasons, and the US shutdown could further incentivize this trend [2] - Investors have increased their interest in international investing, including emerging markets and developed countries outside the US [5] - Chinese tech stocks are performing well, driven by a combination of factors, including cheap valuations and AI competitiveness [6][7] Chinese Tech & AI - Chinese internet companies were very cheap and profitable, engaging in stock buybacks [7][8] - The launch of Deepseek refocused investors on Chinese internet companies, highlighting their AI capabilities [8] - Alibaba and Tencent are considered essential "super apps" for investors seeking exposure to the Chinese market [10] - Baidu (BYU) is particularly interesting due to its perceived undervaluation, search engine leadership, and self-driving car business (Apollo Go) [10][11] - Baidu's Apollo Go self-driving unit is not fully priced into the stock [12] China vs US Infrastructure & Government Support - China has 136 cities with over 1 million people, compared to about 10 in the US, providing more areas for self-driving car development [13] - Chinese cities generally have good physical infrastructure, facilitating self-driving car technology [13] - The Chinese government, at both national and local levels, strongly supports self-driving car initiatives [14]