The dual mainline market is unfolding: the China-U.S. commercial space race is heating up, and at the same time, the AI application market is brewing new investment opportunities. These two mainlines are intertwining to create the most imaginative market story of the year.

**Commercial Space Race Heats Up, Lunar Mission Launches with a Bang**

Recently, SpaceX has been very active. On January 10th, at 5:41 AM Beijing time, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This was SpaceX’s third launch this month and the third in the global aerospace field for 2026. The mission carried 29 Starlink satellites to LEO orbit. Notably, the first stage booster B1069 used for this mission has been used 29 times, having previously participated in CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb, SES series, and 24 Starlink missions — a seasoned "veteran."

But the more significant news comes from NASA. On the evening of February 6th, between 9:41 and 11:41, NASA will launch the Artemis II mission from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center. This will be the first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years. From low Earth orbit satellite networks to crewed lunar missions, the space race’s level is clearly rising.

China’s response is equally strong. According to the latest data, China Star Network has applied for approximately 28,000 satellites in total. Just in the last week of December alone, it submitted an additional 200,000 satellite applications to the International Telecommunication Union. These 200,000 satellites are distributed across 14 constellations: among them, CTC-1 and CTC-2 each applied for 96,714 satellites. The participants are also quite prestigious, including not only China Star Network and Shanghai Yuxin but also the Radio Innovation Institute, Galaxy Aerospace, State Grid High-Tech, as well as operators like China Mobile and China Telecom. Commercial space is no longer just a matter for a single company but a grand chessboard across the entire industry chain.

**AI Application Market Quietly Starts**

If commercial space is the "distant thunder," then AI applications are the "flame right in front of us." Over the weekend, discussions around new AI models were very lively, and related application sectors are now starting up, showing signs of forming a consensus at this stage.

Why now? There are three reasons.

**Timing**: Early 2026 marks the beginning of a super bull market. Domestic MiniMax’s IPO pricing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was quite generous, and the industry has been optimistic that this year will be a breakthrough point for AI applications.

**Location advantage**: The application sector as a whole is at a relatively low level, with ample room for growth.

**People’s support**: Over the past one or two years, a large number of investors have firmly believed in the direction of AI applications. Although the sector’s performance isn’t as explosive as commercial space, it has a solid grassroots foundation, which is hard for any "new concept" to match.

**How the two lines resonate**

The current market is very special: commercial space has upgraded from a commercial value to a national competition level, with words like lunar orbit and satellite networks carrying narrative tension. Meanwhile, AI applications are shifting from model breakthroughs to practical implementation.

Both sectors are supported by strong fundamentals and have reached a market sentiment inflection point. The key is to view the 2026 market with a sufficiently grand perspective. Large capital always chases grand narratives — either conquering space or the intelligent revolution — these are not small-scale hype concepts.

Of course, purely theme-driven markets also have cycles. Currently, the AI application sector lacks performance support from listed companies, which will determine the pace and sustainability of the market. But in the early stages of sector activation, the absence of performance can actually create broader imagination space, which is why individual stocks tend to be strongest at this stage.

**Summary**

In 2026, A-shares are unfolding an unprecedented bull market pattern. Commercial space has evolved into an epic-scale super theme, continuously exceeding expectations. The AI application sector is brewing a new stage consensus; although its strength is temporarily less than that of commercial space, its later start gives it the potential to form rapid consensus.

The core logic of this round is the revaluation of value brought by "models as products." The traditional way of "selling products" is being overturned, and new pricing power may emerge from this. To grasp this wave of market, your vision must be broad enough — narrow analysis frameworks simply cannot see the real picture unfolding.