On Feb. 7,pornographic eroticism reports circulated online that Alibaba was looking to invest $1 billion in DeepSeek to take a 10% stake, valuing the AI company at $10 billion and potentially forging a strong partnership between two Hangzhou-based tech companies. Alibaba Group Vice President Yan Qiao responded to the speculation on social media, saying: “As fellow companies in Hangzhou, we applaud DeepSeek, but the rumor of Alibaba investing in DeepSeek is false.” Later that evening, Alibaba’s US stock surged, rising more than 6% in pre-market trading. [IThome, in Chinese]