Global hedge funds have been snapping up Chinese stocks for much of this year, with their buying accelerating in the past week as the emergence of homegrown artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek fueled investor enthusiasm, Goldman Sachs said in a note.

Onshore and offshore Chinese equities combined are by far the "most notionally net bought market" on Goldman Sachs' prime brokerage book across the world, the bank said in a note to clients citing data until February 7, seen by Reuters this week.

The week between February 3 and 7 recorded the strongest purchase by hedge funds in over four months, the bank said.

Bank prime brokerage desks lend to hedge funds and see their trading flows.