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East/West AIpha Daily · Monday 2 November 2026
The day in one headline
Apple Confirms Qwen for Siri in China. Memory Out-Earns Big Tech.
Apple can plug Alibaba's Qwen into Siri for China like a part. Our view: models are becoming commodities, and whoever owns the user keeps the value.
The AI money is moving to use. Sources: CCID via IT Home; Nikkei Asia tally via IT Home (Apple is a forecast); media reports via 36Kr
My view. The biggest AI story this weekend was not a new model. It was a menu on your phone. Apple says Chinese iPhone users can opt in to Alibaba's Qwen inside Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, with iOS 27.3 in December (Apple). Apple keeps the customer; the model is a swappable part.
China already runs more AI than it trains: over 175 trillion tokens a day, says CCID (IT Home). Five memory makers out-earned the five US tech giants last quarter (IT Home). In our view, value moves to use, to the app and to the picks and shovels, not the model.
Models are commodities. Apps own the customer.
xué yǐ zhì yòng
"Learn it in order to use it."
Read: Apple's China announcement and the CCID token data. Views are my own and do not reflect any organisation or government body.
What it means: the model becomes a part
Apple can swap models by market, opt in and per request.
Whoever owns the user picks the model the user meets.
Profits land on use: the app, and the chips that use burns.
It is key that you know what you are investing in.
Implications for builders and allocators (opinion, general principles, not recommendations)
Builders: own the user, and treat models as parts you can swap.
Allocators: back the customer owner and the picks and shovels, not the model alone.
Top 5 China and East
China runs more AI than it trains. Over 175 trillion tokens a day, 1,000 times early 2024 (IT Home).
Memory beats Big Tech. 32 trillion yen of operating profit vs about 25 trillion (IT Home).
CXMT says DRAM stays short into Q4 (IT Home).
Samsung puts 40 billion yen into its Yokohama packaging lab (IT Home).
Top 5 US and West
OpenAI reportedly cuts its round target to $20 billion from $30 billion. Not confirmed by OpenAI (36Kr).
The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.5% on Friday 30 Oct (IT Home).
OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic back one AI training opt out (IT Home).
Google runs Gemma 4 on a TPU in orbit (36Kr).
The West's test is profit: private AI money now wants a path to it.
Money moves today (USD as disclosed)
At the time of writing, San Eng and entities he controls hold no positions in the companies named, other than through broad index funds. Research and opinion, not investment advice or an offer of any security.
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The West is loud. The East is quiet. You get both stories.