New AI strategy sends shares to multi-year highs
Alibaba shares surged more than 6% in Hong Kong and over 9% in U.S. premarket trading after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence initiatives and product updates. The rally pushed the Hong Kong-listed shares to their highest level since 2021, bringing year-to-date gains to more than 107%.
The jump came after CEO Eddie Wu confirmed at Alibaba Cloud’s annual technology conference that the company would boost its AI investment beyond the previously announced 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years. Wu emphasized the firm’s long-term commitment to building out AI models and infrastructure to prepare for the coming era of artificial superintelligence.
Qwen3-Max and AI infrastructure lead the charge
Among the key announcements was the release of Qwen3-Max, the latest version of Alibaba’s large language model. Wu highlighted that Alibaba Cloud now operates as a “full-stack AI service provider,” offering comprehensive capabilities for training and deploying large-scale AI models through its proprietary data centers.
“The cumulative investment in global AI in the next five years will exceed $4 trillion, and this is the largest investment in computing power and research and development in history,” Wu noted. This massive shift in capital allocation underscores the strategic importance Alibaba sees in owning the AI infrastructure layer.
Global cloud expansion and chip independence
As part of its global expansion, Alibaba Cloud will open its first data centers in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands. Additional centers are scheduled for 2026 in Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Dubai, positioning Alibaba as a global player in cloud-based AI infrastructure.
The company also secured a partnership with Unicom, a major Chinese e-commerce firm, which will deploy AI accelerators developed by Alibaba’s semiconductor division. This move aligns with a broader push by Chinese tech firms to reduce dependency on U.S. chip suppliers amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.
