Jack Ma, co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, spoke in Paris in 2019.
Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images)
China's e-commerce giant Alibaba highlighted its AI ambitions as it reported excellent results for the third quarter. That drive hopes it will become a leader in AI, and the dual-listed company's stock rose 12.7% in Hong Kong at 11:30 a.m. Friday, while New York soared 8.1%.
On Thursday, the company announced that net income jumped 333% to RMB 49 billion in the last three months of 2024 due to changes in operating revenue and the value of stock investments. Revenue rose more than 8% a year ago to 280 billion yuan (US$38.4 billion).
Co-founder Jack Ma resigned as Alibaba chairman in 2019 but still partially gained wealth from the company's shares, adding nearly $1 billion to his net worth, making him the world's five on Thursday One of the biggest wealth promoters. Forbes' real-time billionaire list.
Alibaba shares have soared more than 60% year to date due to yesterday’s rally in New York, adding $120 billion in the U.S. market cap, although the $323 billion company is still 50% lower than the peak it reached in 2020 The above analysts provide investors with hope.
On the call, CEO Eddie Wu outlined a future in which Alibaba Cloud provides the computing power required by AI that will benefit from the proliferation of related applications , especially after China's release of DeepSeek in January was a highly affordable model. Wu, one of the most trusted lieutenants in Massachusetts, said with Joe Tsai that the company’s main goal is to pursue artificial universal intelligence (AGI), which refers to matching or surpassing human intelligence. AI of intelligence.
“Our goal is to continue to develop models that extend the boundaries of intelligence,” Wu said, adding that he foresees the future where AI will take over more human work.
According to Wu, who is not specified, Alibaba's investment in AI and related infrastructure over the next three years will exceed investments in the past decade. Wang Xiaoyan, a Shanghai analyst at research firm 86 Research, said “resolute” investment will help Alibaba maintain its lead over its competitors and give investors confidence in growth over the next five to ten years.
Alibaba will soon release another AI model after launching its QWEN 2.5-MAX model in late January, which the company says outperforms DeepSeek and some other OpenAI models.
Investment in AI is necessary for long-term growth, Thomas Chong, an analyst at investment bank Jefferies, wrote in a research note on Thursday. Alibaba is now an “AI investment,” according to Hong Kong-based research firm Blue Lotus Capital Advisors, wrote in a Friday research note.
According to the research report, Blue Lotus analysts agree that Alibaba Cloud, which accounts for 30% to 40% of the Chinese public cloud market, will host more AI applications.
Western companies looking to introduce AI products in China may work with Alibaba, especially as Apple plans to use the company's models to supply AI services to iPhone users in the country, and Chelsey Tam, a senior equity analyst in Hong Kong, is located in Morningstar's senior equity analyst wrote in a research note on Friday.
“We believe investors expect stronger growth in their cloud division,” Tam wrote.
For Alibaba, it could be after years of enormous government pressure, which could have begun after Margo criticized China's financial regulatory system in 2020. This is widely regarded as a sign of support for private enterprises and the government's encouragement of the pace of domestic economic problems and rising tensions with the United States
