Tesla sales in China dropped to a three-year low in October, raising concerns the electric vehicle maker could see its first full-year sales decline in the country this year.

Fierce competition from local rivals such as NIO and Li Auto — both reporting this week — and a bruising price war in the face of a down economy pushed Tesla’s China sales to 26,006 last month. The U.S. automaker’s share in the Chinese EV market shrank to 3.2% in October from 8.7% in September.

“Tesla is getting surrounded by a swarm of Chinese automakers — from above, below, left and right,” Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights and auto analyst, told CNBC. “Like a swarm of drones, each is taking some sales from the company with a target on its back.”

Tesla’s newest direct competitor in the upper echelon of the Chinese EV market is Xiaomi. The smartphone maker’s YU7 sports utility vehicle and SU7 sedan posted record sales in October despite accidents that raised concerns about the cars’ safety.

The auto newbie sold nearly 109,000 cars in the third quarter — compared with 170,000 for Tesla. Xiaomi’s EV unit turned a profit for the first time.

Late bloomer Leapmotor is pressuring Tesla, too. The Chinese EV startup was founded in 2015, but only this year started beating out its local peers in terms of sales and stock price. Analysts credit its in-house production for keeping costs down. Its C10 mid-sized SUV is priced at roughly half of a Model Y. Leapmotor also has a JV partnership with Europe’s Stellantis.

Leading EV sales in China this year is the Geely Geome Xingyuan. The hatchback is not a direct competitor to Tesla since it serves the cheaper end of the market with its sub $10,000 price tag. Yet it is an indication of where Chinese buyers are at — budget-conscious but looking for value.

The Geome Xingyuan’s success also highlights another trend — traditional automakers such as Geely making inroads in EVs. That trend is turning Huawei into a more notable Tesla rival. The Chinese tech giant partners with old-line carmakers like Seres, Chery, and Beijing Auto. The Aito M8, a Seres model, has become popular among high-end SUVs.

Despite the steep competition, Tesla’s Model Y is still holding up, ranking 6th in the overall market. At Tesla’s annual general meeting this month, Musk said he expected the Chinese to approve the company’s “Full-Self Driving” software in early 2026.

Yet analysts say Tesla needs to refresh its models to keep pace with its local rivals.

Tu Le, founder of consultancy firm Sino Auto Insights, sees 2026 as a “pivotal year” for Tesla in China.

“Reality is catching up to Tesla in China,” Tu said. “Tesla has done an admirable job via price cuts, non-price-cut price cuts and other tricks to maintain sales of almost five and four-year-old cars versus some of the world’s most advanced EVs. But not keeping up with the Xiaomi’s, BYD’s and XPeng’s seems to be finally starting to show itself in its monthly sales.”

Last month, Tesla reported its total third-quarter revenue increased 12% from a year earlier to $28.10 billion, following two straight periods of declines.

Even with the overall revenue growth, Tesla’s third quarter was marked by a continuing sales slump in Europe, driven partly by competition from EV makers like Volkswagen and BYD.

On a cold November evening in Shanghai in 2020, the world’s largest IPO was abruptly canceled by Chinese regulators.

It was Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of tech giant Alibaba. The company’s founder Jack Ma, one of China’s most famous billionaires, was under scrutiny for comments seemingly criticising the country’s financial regulators.  

What followed was four years of pressure on Ma’s empire.

Since the IPO cancelation, more than $400 billion has been wiped off Alibaba’s value, even with a more recent rally. In the months after the failed public listing, Ma retreated from the public eye and Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce player, looked down and out, with management and structure changes bearing little fruit. The moves were not characteristic of the grit the company had shown in the past and a far cry from its strong position now.

But those who know Ma know never to count him out.

“The hallmark of Jack and his personality is that he never gave up,” Brian Wong, a former Alibaba executive and author of “The Tao of Alibaba,” told CNBC.

Wong features in my new show “Built for Billions,” in which I explore Alibaba’s most testing moments and delve into how it grew to become one of the world’s biggest tech companies and one of the most advanced artificial intelligence players.

I have attended Alibaba’s Singles Day in both Shanghai — where it featured a huge gala with celebrities and music performances — and at its headquarters in Hangzhou. The whole company is mobilized as billions of dollars are transacted across its platforms in a short space of time. Those experiences provided a real insight into the scale of the company.

Alibaba has sometimes been compared to U.S. tech giant Amazon. But it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

“Alibaba now, is seen as a serious player in technology, not just an e-commerce company,” Duncan Clark, an early advisor to Alibaba and chairman of consultancy firm BDA China, told CNBC’s “Built for Billions.”

Ma’s empire endured tightened regulations and even a nearly $3 billion antitrust fine in 2021.

There was a level of soul searching taking place at the company that was now battling a tougher domestic market with a weak consumer and rising challenges from players like PDD and JD.com. How could Alibaba reinvigorate growth? And was Jack Ma done for good?

When I left China in 2021, I was struck by how fixated international markets were with Ma. It was as if his reappearance served as a sign of Alibaba’s standing with the Chinese government. For instance, Alibaba’s stock would jump if Ma was spotted somewhere.

This overshadowed what was happening in the background. Alibaba had undergone one of the biggest restructures in history. But it wasn’t changing the giant’s fortunes. Daniel Zhang, who had succeeded Ma as CEO and eventually chairman some years prior, unexpectedly announced plans to step down in 2023. His successors were two well-respected veterans, current CEO Eddie Wu and President Joe Tsai.

They steadied the ship, refocused the company on its core e-commerce business, while simultaneously investing in AI. The results were a sharp improvement in business, particularly in more recent quarters.

Was Ma gone for good? It seemed not. In February, Ma was among a handful of entrepreneurs who met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare meeting.

“He’s in his early 60s now, but he’s still pretty vibrant. He has homes and yachts and all that stuff. But one senses that he’s not done yet,” Clark said.

When OpenAI’s ChatGPT hit the world in late 2022, Alibaba was ready just months later with its own AI offering.

Alibaba’s approach was different to some of its U.S. rivals, instead focusing on open source or open weight AI models which are free for developers to download and use. The company’s models are now among some of the most popular globally for developers to use.

CEO Wu has cemented Alibaba’s commitment to its reinvention as an AI company. In his first letter to employees after taking the reins, Wu called for Alibaba to return to the startup mindset and set two strategic priorities: “user first” and “AI-driven.”

The focus on AI has benefitted the company’s cloud business. It also comes at a time when AI development is being framed as a race between U.S. and Chinese companies and Alibaba is emerging as one of China’s key players.

“Wherever you look, whatever you touch, China is moving closer towards that vision of dominating AI race by 2030, Alibaba is participating and being an important player,” Ashley Dudarenok, a China digital expert and investor told “Built for Billions.”

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Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

The stock market is coming off a rough week as investors mulled concerns about the state of the artificial intelligence trade and the economy. But stocks regained some ground on Friday, bolstered by renewed hope for another interest rate cut.

Here’s what to know:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each dropped close to 2% last week. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.7% for its third straight negative week as tech felt the brunt of the declines.
• But the market bounced on Friday, after New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said he sees “room for a further adjustment” on interest rates.
• Fed funds futures began pricing in a higher likelihood of a rate cut at the Fed’s December meting following Williams’ commentary. Traders now see a more than 73% chance of a decrease next month, up from around 42% a week ago, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
• On the other hand, Boston Fed President Susan Collins said over the weekend that she sees “reasons to be hesitant” about lower rates at the central bank’s next policy meeting.
• Speaking to NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged that some sectors are feeling economic pressure but said he believes the U.S. won’t enter a recession next year.
• Follow live markets updates here.

A legal filing released on Friday accuses Meta of halting internal research that allegedly found that people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious.

Meta allegedly started the study in 2019 to examine the impacts of its products on “polarization, news consumption, well-being, and daily social interactions,” the legal brief said. The filing is tied to high-profile litigation against social media platforms — including Meta, Google’s YouTube, Snap and TikTok — from plaintiffs such as school districts and state attorneys general.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company disagrees with the allegations, which he said “rely on cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions in an attempt to present a deliberately misleading picture.”

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk fell more than 10% this morning after the Danish drugmaker announced that its Alzheimer’s trial didn’t meet its main target.

Analysts expected the trial — which tracked if semaglutide, the active ingredient in diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, helped slow cognitive decline — to be a long shot. However, previous trials found that use of the drug helped with Alzheimer’s-related biomarkers.

Martin Holst Lange, Novo’s chief scientific officer, said the company felt it had a “responsibility to explore semaglutide’s potential, despite a low likelihood of success.”

U.S. airlines are expecting another record Thanksgiving travel period. As American Airlines operations chief David Seymour put it: “The stakes are high.” Lobbying group Airlines for America estimated that airlines will service more than 31 million people between Nov. 21 and Dec. 1.

The holiday travel frenzy comes not long after the end of the federal government shutdown which resulted in disrupted travel for 6 million flyers, according to A4A. Officials announced last week that air traffic controllers and technicians who had perfect attendance while the government was closed will get $10,000 bonuses.

Universal’s “Wicked: For Good” raked in around $150 million in domestic ticket sales this weekend. It’s the second-biggest opening weekend for a 2025 film release and the largest-ever debut for a Broadway adaption. The film’s haul also exceeds that of the first film installment of “Wicked,” which was released last year.

Around 10 million “Wicked: For Good” tickets were sold during the opening weekend, according to data EntTelligence. Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore, said that the movie-musical could help this year’s Thanksgiving film slate give 2024’s record period “a run for its money.”

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

• Tuesday: Best Buy, Dick’s, Abercrombie & Fitch and Kohl’s earnings (before the bell); Workday, Dell and HP earnings (after the bell); September producer price index; September retail sales data
• Wednesday: Fed’s Beige Book
• Thursday: Thanksgiving, markets closed
• Friday: Stock market closes early

CNBC Pro subscribers can see a full calendar and rundown for the week here.

— CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Jeff Cox, Annie Nova, Yun Li, Kif Leswing, Leslie Josephs, Elsa Ohlen and Sarah Whitten, as well as Reuters, contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.