Kuaishou Technology (1024.HK): Asia Leadership Summit 2026 Takeaways — Kling Model Upgrade Imminent, Core Business in Progress
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Goldman Sachs hosted Kuaishou management at its Asia Leadership Summit 2026 in Hong Kong (August 31–September 2), with discussion centered on the Kling AI model, capex, core-business profitability and shareholder returns. A major Kling model upgrade is imminent, though no date was disclosed; management targets SOTA performance, views Seedance 2.0/2.5 and Google Veo as key competitors, and believes Kling retains first-tier positioning. Over 60% of Kling revenue comes from APIs serving large enterprises and AI aggregator platforms; gross margin of roughly 15%–20% should gradually improve toward 40%+ within two to three years. Kuaishou guides 2026 capex to RMB26bn, more than 70% allocated to Kling—expected to be the peak, with spending declining next year as Kling self-funds incremental compute through Opex. On the core business, management expects 2H26 e-commerce GMV to fall high-single-digits to 10% YoY on macro weakness and tax-related issues, with margins stabilizing within one to two quarters; high-single-digit to ~10% margins remain the target. Shareholder returns reached HK$5.5bn YTD (HK$2.5bn buybacks plus HK$3.0bn dividends), exceeding 2025's HK$5.0bn, with a yield above 4%. Goldman maintains Neutral with a 12-month target of HK$38 (13x 2027E EPS); at HK$33.64 (September 2 close), upside is 13.0%.
Key exhibits
Exhibit 1
