(Bloomberg) -- Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s spending plans will draw investor scrutiny as investors cool on lavish outlays on artificial intelligence.
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Last month, the Magnificent Seven lost $797 billion in a day after Google parent Alphabet Inc. raised capital expenditure plans while its cash flow turned negative for the first time since going public.
That's raising the pressure for Tencent, weeks after the WeChat owner raised $4.7 billion from the sale of long-dated dollar and yuan bonds in its largest bond offering since 2020 to finance the development of its AI products and services.
Consensus earnings estimates in China's tech sector will remain under sustained pressure in the second half, weighed down by price wars and oversupply including in AI, even as AI performance gap with the US is narrowing, said Bloomberg Intelligence.
Meanwhile, prints from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. will show tailwinds on the hardware side of the tech industry.
Highlights to look out for:
Monday: Ayala Land (ALI PM) earnings are set to shrink for a second straight quarter as a double rate hike from the Philippine central bank in response to the fallout from the Iran war and ensuing inflation pressured residential demand. Increased investments in shopping malls and offices should raise the portion of recurring income, according to BI.
Tuesday: Foxconn Industrial Internet's (601138 CH) guidance should hint at growth in the second half of the year, supported by Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin platform, Citi said. Profit for the first half should have risen between 93% to 101%, driven by stronger revenue from AI servers for cloud service providers, according to preliminary earnings.
Wednesday: Tencent (700 HK) earnings growth likely fell to its lowest since 2023, slowed by rising AI investment costs including agentic token expenses, said BI. The forthcoming AI agent for its WeChat platform will remain in focus during management's earnings call while no significant external sales from AI are expected this year.
Strong demand for AI infrastructure and consumer electronics should have supported Hon Hai Precision (2317 TT) in its second quarter, said BI, noting monthly sales numbers that signaled robust demand in the global AI infrastructure buildout. Margins could see some pressure from AI servers though strong operating leverage and the shift to a consignment model for certain projects should help mitigate such risks.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (CBA AU) full-year earnings are seen rising 6% amid lower costs, flat net interest income and a smaller impairment charge compared with last year, according to UBS. Margins are likely to be ahead of expectations as the bank was more judicious in deploying capital in the second half, UBS added, and key risks are seen around mortgages and the impact on net flow rates.