Japan's Nikkei tracks Wall Street higher

TOKYO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average rose in early trade on Wednesday, led by technology stocks after U.S. shares rebounded overnight from a sharp sell-off triggered by Chinese startup DeepSeek's launch of AI models.

The Nikkei .N225 was up 0.8% at 39,314.32, as of 0014 GMT, after rising 1% in early trade, while the broader Topix .TOPX gained 0.4%.

U.S. stocks ended higher on Tuesday, with Nvidia NVDA.O and other artificial intelligence-linked technology shares recovering from sharp losses the previous day as investors snapped up bargains..N

Japan's semiconductor- and AI-related shares popped back on Wednesday, with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest 6857.T, which counts Nvidia among its customers, adding 3%.

AI-focused startup investor SoftBank Group 9984.T and chip-making equipment giant Tokyo Electron 8035.T also rose.