News

Alibaba: Chinese Tech Giant Doubles Down on AI with Historic Investment Plan

Picture: Midjourney

The tech world witnessed a seismic shift as Alibaba announced an unprecedented investment in artificial intelligence. The Chinese e-commerce behemoth plans to pour more resources into AI over the next three years than it spent in the entire past decade. Their stock responded accordingly, surging 14.6% in Hong Kong trading.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 21 - CEO Eddie Wu isn't just throwing money at a trend. The company's fourth-quarter results show they mean business. Revenue jumped 8% to 280 billion yuan, their fastest growth in over a year. Their cloud division, the backbone of their AI ambitions, grew by 13%. It seems their tech transformation is already paying dividends.

But Alibaba isn't just betting on AI - they're aiming for the holy grail: artificial general intelligence (AGI). They're working on a deep reasoning model that could go toe-to-toe with DeepSeek and OpenAI. Meanwhile, they've been quietly investing in AI startups like Moonshot and 01.ai, building an arsenal of technical expertise.

The political winds seem favorable too. Jack Ma's recent meeting with President Xi Jinping suggests Beijing's tech crackdown might be easing. It's a far cry from 2020 when Ma became the poster child for government intervention in the tech sector.

Their international e-commerce business is booming, up 32%. Their domestic Taobao and Tmall platforms have stabilized. And that Apple partnership? It's not just for show - they're bringing AI features to iPhones in China.

Competition is fierce, though. Huawei, Baidu, and ByteDance aren't sitting idle. They're all eyeing the same AI prize. But Alibaba's deep pockets and renewed government favor give them a fighting chance.

Why this matters:

We're witnessing the transformation of a retail giant into a tech powerhouse - imagine if Amazon had started its AWS journey with today's AI capabilities
China's tech sector is stepping out of regulatory shadows, with AI as its golden ticket
The East-West AI race is heating up, and Alibaba's aggressive investment could shift the global balance of innovation

DeepSeek: The AI startup that's saying no to money

DeepSeek's billionaire founder has a peculiar problem: His AI company is making too much money. The Hangzhou-based startup hit profitability last month. Then it did something unusual. It stopped taking new customers. While Silicon Valley's AI companies sprint to grab market share, DeepSeek's founder

Silicon Valley's New Power Play: Google Pushes AI Freedom as OpenAI Targets China

Two tech giants just revealed their vision for AI's future. Their proposals show how Silicon Valley wants to shape global AI development - and who gets left behind. Google released a policy proposal that would let AI companies use almost any public data for training. The company wants

Apple's AI Dreams Hit Reality: The Siri Features That Weren't

Remember when Apple couldn't miss? Those days just ended. Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring cut Apple's target price by $23 last week. The reason? Siri can't do what Apple promised. The numbers tell a brutal story. iPhone sales in China plunged 18% last quarter.

Read next