BEIJING: Chinese tech giant Alibaba said on Monday (Feb 24) it will spend more than US$50 billion on artificial intelligence and cloud computing over the next three years, a week after co-founder Jack Ma was seen meeting President Xi Jinping.
Investors have piled into Chinese technology stocks since the start of the year, with Alibaba – which runs some of the country’s biggest online shopping platforms – seeing its shares soar to three-year highs.
The gains have been boosted since the Hangzhou-based firm announced robust sales growth last week, adding to signs that the sector is staging a comeback from years of gloom sparked by a government crackdown.
Alibaba plans to “invest at least 380 billion yuan (US$53 billion) over the next three years to advance its cloud computing and AI infrastructure”, a company statement said.
The firm said its strategy was aimed at “reinforcing (Alibaba’s) commitment to long-term technological innovation … (and) underscores the company’s focus on AI-driven growth”.
The statement did not detail how the company would allocate the funds or what specific projects would be supported.
It did add that the investment would exceed its total AI and cloud spending over the past decade.
Alibaba last week reported an 8 per cent bump in revenue for the three months through December, beating estimates to reach 280 billion yuan – and triggering a 14 per cent surge in its Hong Kong shares on Friday.
CEO Eddie Wu said last week that the quarterly results “demonstrated substantial progress in (Alibaba’s) ‘user-first, AI-driven’ strategies and the re-accelerated growth of our core businesses”.
阿里宣布投入3800亿元建设云和AI硬件基础设施。
2月24日，澎湃新闻记者从阿里巴巴获悉，阿里巴巴集团CEO吴泳铭宣布，未来三年，阿里将投入超过3800亿元，用于建设云和AI硬件基础设施，总额超过去十年的总和。这也创下中国民营企业在云和AI硬件基础设施建设领域有史以来最大规模投资纪录。
据悉，阿里这笔投入发生在两个重要时点之后。一是国内AI产业爆发；二是民营企业座谈会召开。吴泳铭表示：“AI爆发远超预期，国内科技产业方兴未艾，潜力巨大。阿里巴巴将不遗余力加速云和AI硬件基础设施建设，助推全行业生态发展。”
目前，阿里云是亚洲第一的云计算公司，阿里巴巴通义千问大模型已成为全球顶尖的开源模型。3800亿巨额资金继续投入，能极大提振相关产业信心，同时也表明：阿里一如既往相信未来、投资未来。
2月20日，阿里巴巴集团（NYSE:BABA，09988.HK）发布2025财年第三季度业绩（截至2024年12月底止季度），该季度营收2801.5亿元，预估2773.7亿元，同比增长8%；经调整EBITA同比增长4%至548.53亿元，主要归因于收入增长和运营效率提升，部分被对电商业务的投入增加所抵消。净利润464.34亿元，同比增长333%，主要是由于经营利润增加、所持有的股权投资按市值计价的变动，以及权益法核算的投资损益增加所致，部分被投资减值增加所抵消，非公认会计准则净利润（剔除了非现金股权激励费用、投资收益/损失等）为510.66亿元，同比增长6%。
财报会上，阿里巴巴集团CEO吴泳铭表示，面向未来，阿里巴巴将继续专注三大业务类型：国内外电商业务、AI+云计算的科技业务、互联网平台产品。未来三年，阿里将围绕AI这个战略核心，在AI基础设施、基础模型平台及AI原生应用、现有业务的AI转型等三方面加大投入。当时，吴泳铭就表示，AI时代对于基础设施有明确而巨大的需求，将积极投资于AI基础设施建设，未来三年在云和AI的基础设施投入预计将超越过去十年的总和。
据大智慧VIP，截至2月24日记者发稿，阿里港股涨1.73%，报140.9港元/股。