Akcie Alibaba se po srpnovém prodeji akcií obchodují pod upisovací cenou HK$112,70; pondělní uzavření bylo asi o 2,75 % níž. Firma získala HK$80 miliard na AI infrastrukturu, ale čistý zisk za čtvrtletí klesl zhruba o 75 %.
Fresh shareholders are already underwater after funding one of Hong Kong's largest-ever follow-on offerings. Summary
Monday’s close sat approximately 2.75% below Alibaba’s August placement price.
Alibaba Group (BABA), the Chinese e-commerce and cloud-computing giant, raised HK$80 billion in August after pricing 710 million new Hong Kong shares at HK$112.70 apiece. The U.S.-listed stock stood at $113.24 on Sept. 7, putting investors' focus squarely on whether Alibaba can turn fresh capital into faster, more profitable AI growth.
The placement expands Alibaba's share count by roughly 3.6%, and every dollar of net proceeds is headed toward AI infrastructure and full-stack capabilities. The company's June-quarter results delivered 9% revenue growth to RMB268.95 billion and a 45% surge in cloud and AI-related revenue. The catch was brutal: net profit plunged approximately 75%.
The valuation picture offers some breathing room. At $113.24, Alibaba trades 5.3% below its GF Value™ estimate of $119.58, suggesting modest upside if execution improves. But that discount is not a free pass. Management now has the capital; the real test is whether cloud growth and proprietary chips can outrun dilution, collapsing profit and the enormous depreciation burden created by its infrastructure buildout.
Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.
Alibaba musí po roce kupónů a doručovacích dotací dokázat, že její instantní retail bude ziskový. Trh by mohl do konce roku dosáhnout 1,2 bilionu jüanů.
Instant delivery changed consumer behavior; now Alibaba must prove warehouses can replace subsidies with returns. Summary
Faster shopping created demand before it created dependable profit.
Alibaba Group BABA, the Chinese commerce, cloud and artificial-intelligence giant, entered a tougher chapter in China's instant-retail war. After a year of coupons and delivery subsidies, the fight is shifting from winning orders to making those orders profitable. Reuters estimates the market could reach 1.2 trillion yuan, or roughly $178 billion, by year-end.
The battlefield is also getting bigger. Alibaba and its rivals are pushing beyond restaurant meals into electronics, medicine, flowers and other higher-margin products promised within an hour. That expansion demands automated warehouses, denser fulfillment networks and disciplined spending—especially after regulators reined in the industry's most aggressive promotions.
Alibaba traded at $111.135 on Sept. 3, sitting 6.88% below its GF Value estimate of $119.35 and implying roughly 7.4% upside if the shares reach that benchmark. But valuation is only part of the story. Alibaba's June-quarter release does not isolate instant-retail profitability, leaving investors with one decisive question: can higher order density and repeat purchases turn subsidy-driven demand into durable earnings?
Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.
Alibaba uzavřela pod 115 USD, asi 60 % pod historickým maximem z října 2020. V červnovém čtvrtletí tržby vzrostly o 8,6 %, ale čistý zisk klesl o 75,6 %.
Alibaba (BABA -4.10%) closed below $115 on Aug. 31, putting it about 60% below its all-time closing high of $298.65 set in October 2020. The math on that drawdown may look like a gift. I do not think it is one, and here are three reasons why.
Reason No. 1: The earnings base is collapsing while revenue grows This is the part that breaks the "cheap stock" framing. In the June quarter, Alibaba grew revenue 8.6% to RMB 268.95 billion. But net income excluding extra items fell 75.6% to RMB 10.54 billion from RMB 43.12 billion a year earlier. Basic earnings per share (EPS) dropped from RMB 18.57 to RMB 4.51.
Profit margins compressed from 14.8% to 7%. When you buy a stock 60% off its high, you are implicitly assuming that the earnings that justified the old price still exist. Here, they have been cut by three-quarters. Adjust the multiple for that, and the discount shrinks fast.
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Reason No. 2: The AI build-out consumes cash rather than generating it Capital expenditure hit RMB 67.7 billion in the quarter, up 75% year over year. Free cash flow swung to an outflow of RMB 44.67 billion. Alibaba has spent RMB 190 billion of an RMB 380 billion three-year plan, so it is halfway through, and the spending is not linear.
Management was candid about the trade-off. The CFO said that at current margins, keeping cloud growth below 33% would generate positive cash flow, but the company is choosing to make aggressive investments instead. Break-even on AI capex takes three years at current gross margins, potentially 2.5 years if margins improve.
Image source: Getty Images.
The cloud business is genuinely good. External revenue grew 45%, a 22-quarter high, with EBITDA margin at 12% and AI product revenue at an RMB 49.5 billion annual run rate. But it is not yet large enough to offset the group drag. The stock fell about 9% the day these results landed, despite that acceleration.
Reason No. 3: The instant commerce war has no clean exit In 2025, HSBC (HSBC -0.38%) estimated that Alibaba lost as much as RMB 87 billion in instant retail over 12 months. The company incurs roughly RMB 2 to 5 per order. It treats this as customer acquisition cost rather than operational failure, and maybe that framing is right. However, it means a second uncapped spending program running alongside the AI build-out, funded by the same balance sheet.
There is a bigger point here that bulls tend to skip. Alibaba is fighting an expensive, grinding war for a domestic market it already knows well, against a competitor that will not fold. Meituan cut its quarterly operating loss from RMB 16.1 billion to RMB 6.5 billion and still holds roughly 70% of orders with an average value above RMB 30, where the margin actually lives.
Meanwhile, the market that people imagine Alibaba eventually cracking is close. Amazon (AMZN -2.50%) holds roughly 37.6% to 40.5% of the United States e-commerce market, with Walmart (WMT +1.73%) a distant second near 6.4%. Add Shopify's (SHOP -3.62%) 14%, and those two platforms account for about half of all United States online spending. Alibaba does not register in that table. It never has, and the combination of logistics density, Prime lock-in, and political sensitivity around Chinese platforms means it never will, in my opinion.
What the setup actually is Alibaba has lots of cash reserves and can absorb this. Cloud growth is accelerating, AI products carry higher gross margins than the rest of the portfolio, and management targets RMB 100 billion in external cloud revenue by 2030 at 20% gross margins.
That is a credible long-term story. It is not a once-in-a-decade setup. A once-in-a-decade setup is a healthy business priced for disaster. This is a business voluntarily suppressing its earnings on two fronts simultaneously, with no committed end date for either, while free cash flow is negative.
Alibaba zvýšila tržby z AI cloudu a výpočetních služeb ve fiskálním 1. čtvrtletí o 45 % na 48,4 miliardy jüanů. Zároveň kapitálové výdaje vyskočily o 75 % na 67,7 miliardy jüanů a volný peněžní tok se dostal do záporu.
For years, investors knew the company primarily as China's e-commerce giant, with Taobao and Tmall at the center of its business. But Alibaba is now pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence (AI), building cloud infrastructure, developing its own AI models, and even investing in AI chips.
The transformation is starting to show up in the numbers.
In its fiscal 2027 first quarter, which ended June 30, Alibaba's AI cloud and compute services revenue jumped 45% year over year to 48.4 billion yuan (about $7.2 billion). But there's a catch: Capital spending surged 75% to 67.7 billion yuan ($10.1 billion), pushing free cash flow into negative territory.
So, is Alibaba a buy now? Investors should focus on one major green flag and one red flag.
Image source: Getty Images.
Green flag: AI is becoming a real business For years, Alibaba's AI ambitions were mostly a promise.
The company had Qwen, its family of large language models. It had Alibaba Cloud. And it had ambitious plans to invest heavily in AI infrastructure. But investors still needed proof that businesses would actually pay for these services.
That proof is beginning to emerge. Alibaba's AI cloud and compute services revenue grew 45% year over year in the latest quarter. That's impressive growth for a business already generating billions of dollars in quarterly revenue. Even more encouraging, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA) for the segment jumped 133%.
In simple terms, Alibaba isn't just getting more customers to use its AI services. It's also starting to make more money from the AI business as it grows.
That's important because cloud computing can become more profitable as infrastructure gets used more efficiently. Once the expensive data centers and computing systems are in place, additional revenue can flow through at higher margins -- an effect enabled by operating leverage.
Alibaba is also building an ecosystem around Qwen, its AI model family. Developers can use Qwen to build their own applications, while Alibaba provides the computing power and software tools needed to run them.
Think of it this way: Qwen attracts developers. Alibaba AI Cloud provides the infrastructure. If that flywheel continues to work, Alibaba could build a much larger and more valuable cloud business over time.
And there are already signs that this is happening. Alibaba said AI-related product revenue has grown at triple-digit percentage rates for 12 consecutive quarters, while Alibaba Cloud ranked first in China's AI cloud market, with a 38.1% market share.
For investors, this is the most encouraging part of Alibaba's transformation. AI is no longer just an investment story. It's starting to become a profit story.
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Red flag: The AI opportunity doesn't come cheap Here's the problem.
Alibaba is spending an enormous amount of money in pursuit of the AI opportunity.
Capital expenditures jumped 75% year over year to 68 billion yuan ($10.1 billion) in the latest quarter, and free cash flow turned negative. In other words, Alibaba is spending heavily today in the hope of generating much larger returns tomorrow.
While the conglomerate has historically relied on profits from its flagship e-commerce business to fund these investments, it may eventually turn to external funds for two reasons.
First, the e-commerce business itself is burning huge amounts of profits to expand into the instant commerce segment. While there are signs that this investment period is nearing its end, as evidenced by the recovery in its EBITA, there is no guarantee that Alibaba won't ramp it back up in the future.
Second, Alibaba has committed to spending approximately 380 billion yuan on AI and cloud infrastructure through 2029. So, while its capital expenditures have been high recently, they could grow further in the coming quarters.
In fact, Alibaba just announced a new share placement worth 80 billion yuan, saying that it would invest the money from that stock sale in AI. This suggests that more such secondary stock sales could take place in the future.
That creates important questions for investors: Will the returns from its AI businesses justify the billions Alibaba is spending to build them? And how much more equity dilution will take place along the way?
What does it mean for investors? Alibaba's latest quarterly results paint a picture that features a fascinating combination of promise and risk for investors.
The green flag is increasingly clear: AI is driving rapid growth in Alibaba Cloud, and the business is beginning to show operating leverage. The red flag is equally clear: Capturing that growth requires enormous investments, which put pressure on cash flow and lead to equity dilution.
That's why the company is at a critical juncture. If Alibaba can turn today's 45% AI-cloud growth into a large, recurring, and profitable business, today's spending could look like a bargain in hindsight. If it can't, investors could discover that building an AI empire is much easier than earning an attractive return from it.
The former premise may make its stock a great buy today, while the latter raises important question marks. Investors should weigh both the upside and the downside before making a decision about buying Alibaba stock.
Amazon vykázal ve 2. čtvrtletí tržby 200,6 miliardy USD a provozní zisk 27,5 miliardy USD, přičemž AWS zrychlilo růst na 37 %. Alibaba sice zvýšila tržby o 9 %, ale volný peněžní tok skončil odtokem 44,7 miliardy RMB.
Key Takeaways Amazon's AWS growth accelerated to 37%, while advertising revenues rose 26% year over year.Alibaba's cloud revenues surged 45%, but heavy investment drove free cash flow to a RMB44.7 billion outflow.Amazon gained 12.1% YTD as Alibaba fell 18.6%, reflecting stronger execution and investor confidence. Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Alibaba Group (BABA - Free Report) lead e-commerce on their continents, each evolving into cloud and AI powerhouses. Amazon dominates North American and international marketplaces, with Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) anchoring global cloud infrastructure. Alibaba, via Taobao and Tmall, remains China's commerce backbone, with Alibaba Cloud as a regional AI leader.
Both companies reported quarters marked by heavy AI capex and accelerating cloud growth, a timely comparison.
Let's delve deep and closely compare the fundamentals of the two stocks to determine which one is a better investment now.
The Case for AMZN StockAmazon's second-quarter 2026 results underscore why it remains the stronger of the two names right now. Net sales climbed 20% year over year to $200.6 billion, while operating income surged 43% to $27.5 billion, with AWS accelerating to 37% growth, its fastest pace in eighteen quarters, reaching a $169 billion annualized revenue run rate. Management highlighted that AWS' AI and custom chips businesses, including Trainium and Graviton, each now exceed a $25 billion annual revenue run rate, giving Amazon a differentiated, vertically integrated AI infrastructure stack that few rivals can currently match. New agentic offerings, including Amazon Quick and expanded Amazon Connect solutions, are gaining enterprise traction and diversifying monetization well beyond core cloud hosting and retail commerce.
Advertising revenues grew 26% year over year to $19.8 billion, reinforcing a high-margin, fast-growing complement to retail and cloud. For the third quarter, Amazon guided net sales of $197 billion to $202 billion and operating income of $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion, with management noting that underlying growth, excluding Prime Day timing shifts, would run nearly 400 basis points higher.
Challenges remain as elevated 2026 capital expenditure of roughly $220 billion is pressuring free cash flow, and management has acknowledged capacity constraints limiting how much AWS demand it can currently fulfill through 2027. Rising memory chip and transportation costs also pose near-term margin risk. Even so, Amazon's diversified revenue base spanning retail, advertising and rapidly scaling AI infrastructure gives it a broader, more resilient growth runway than most peers currently offer investors today.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMZN’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $13.06 per share, indicating an 82.15% increase from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.
The Case for BABA StockAlibaba's fiscal first-quarter 2027 results, reported in August 2026, show a company mid-transition. Total revenues rose 9% year over year to RMB269.0 billion, driven by Alibaba Cloud, whose external revenues surged 45%, its fastest pace in 22 quarters. AI-related product revenues reached RMB12.4 billion, a 12th straight quarter of triple-digit growth, now representing 35% of external cloud revenues at an annualized run rate above RMB49.5 billion. Management pointed to Alibaba Cloud's rising EBITDA margin, up to roughly 12%, and reiterated that cloud growth should keep accelerating alongside sequential margin improvement as AI adoption scales.
The costs of that buildout are visible. Capital expenditure reached RMB67.7 billion for the quarter, pushing free cash flow to an outflow of RMB44.7 billion, while adjusted EBITDA fell 30% and GAAP net income dropped 75% year over year, reflecting heavy technology and infrastructure investment alongside e-commerce competitive pressure. Alibaba's core e-commerce group grew a modest 4%, with customer management revenues declining, though management expects quick commerce to reach overall profitability by fiscal 2029 and eventually contribute a meaningful share of platform volume.
Alibaba's original three-year, RMB380 billion AI and cloud infrastructure commitment now appears understated relative to actual demand, with leadership indicating spending could run higher than originally planned. That signals confidence in long-term AI monetization but also extends the timeline before near-term profitability stabilizes. For investors, Alibaba represents a genuine AI and cloud growth story still working through a costly, multi-year investment phase with tangible commercial traction but persistent margin and cash flow headwinds.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at $6.87 per share, implying 76.61% year-over-year growth.
Valuation and Price Performance ComparisonAlibaba trades at a forward P/E of 15.02x versus Amazon's steeper 22.59x, yet Amazon's premium looks justified given its faster-accelerating, higher-margin AWS growth, diversified advertising engine, and clearer path back toward strong free cash flow generation once elevated capex normalizes.
AMZN vs. BABA P/E Ratio
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
On price performance, Alibaba shares have declined 18.6% year to date, reflecting persistent margin and cash flow pressure, while Amazon shares have gained 12.1%, reflecting investor confidence in its execution. Amazon's premium valuation, paired with positive momentum, signals the market is rewarding demonstrated AI monetization and operating discipline, making the current price still an attractive entry point relative to its growth trajectory.
AMZN Outperforms BABA YTD
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
ConclusionAmazon's edge over Alibaba rests on accelerating AWS growth, a diversified advertising and agentic AI business, disciplined execution reflected in expanding operating margins, and clear forward guidance pointing to continued momentum despite heavy AI capex. Alibaba offers genuine cloud and AI commercialization progress, but persistent cash flow outflows, declining net income and e-commerce softness weigh on near-term conviction. Amazon's premium valuation appears earned given stronger fundamentals and positive price momentum, while Alibaba's discount reflects unresolved profitability questions. Investors seeking better upside potential should buy AMZN now, while holding BABA shares and awaiting a more attractive entry point before adding exposure. AMZN currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), whereas BABA has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Alibaba spustila emisi nových akcií za HK$80 miliard ($10,2 miliardy), aby financovala rozvoj AI. Firma chce všechny čisté výnosy vložit do „full stack“ AI schopností.
China’s Alibaba on Sunday launched a HK$80-billion ($10.2 billion) share placement to fund artificial intelligence-related development.
A deal by the Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing giant would mark the largest-ever primary follow-on offering by a Hong Kong-listed company.
It would rank as the world’s third-largest primary follow-on share sale this year after offerings from Alphabet and Intel.
Alibaba has said it intends to use 100% of the net proceeds from the placement to invest in its “full stack” AI capabilities. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The company said it intends to use 100% of the net proceeds from the placement to invest in its “full stack” AI capabilities, a category that includes chips, infrastructure and the development and deployment of AI models.
A term sheet reviewed by Reuters showed Alibaba planned to sell 710 million ordinary shares at HK$112.70 a share. That represented a 3.6% discount to its most recent closing price.
In its announcement for the $10.2 billion share placement, Alibaba did not disclose additional details on its investment plans by category of its planned AI-related investment.
It did not comment beyond its regulatory disclosure.
Last week, Alibaba reported its results for the April-to-June quarter, saying it had already spent nearly half of its three-year capex investment plan. It said its expected payback on AI-related investments was on track to fall to 2.5 years from three years, driven by surging demand.
Alibaba’s net profit for the quarter fell 75% from a year earlier as it ramped up its AI-related capital expenditures.
“In order to be able to capture that future growth, we first need to make these capex investments to build out the necessary compute capacity,” CEO Eddie Wu said on an earnings call.
Alibaba’s HK$80-billion share placement would mark the largest-ever primary follow-on offering by a Hong Kong-listed company. Bloomberg via Getty Images The company’s share offering has been met with strong demand from investors, including sovereign wealth funds, two people familiar with the deal told Reuters. They could not be named because the information was not public.
Alibaba increased the size of the offering after the deal was oversubscribed, the people familiar with the matter said.
Morgan Stanley, HSBC, UBS and CICC are serving as joint bookrunners of the Alibaba offering, said one of the sources and a third person with knowledge of the matter. The banks did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The share placement was not registered under US securities laws as an offshore transaction, meaning American investors were not eligible to participate, Alibaba said.
Since 2022, the global AI boom has fueled staggering capital outlays on infrastructure and data centers, including in the U.S. and China.
The four major U.S. hyperscalers – Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta – together are expected to spend roughly $725 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, much of it tied to AI data centers, chips and cloud infrastructure.
Alibaba v červnovém čtvrtletí snížila zpětný odkup akcií o zhruba 80 % na 162 milionů USD, aby financovala infrastrukturu pro AI. Kapitálové výdaje vzrostly meziročně o 75 % na 67,678 milionu RMB.
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Alibaba (NYSE:BABA | BABA Price Prediction) just made its capital allocation priorities unmistakable. In the June 2026 quarter, the company repurchased 13.4 million ordinary shares (approximately 1.7 million ADSs) for US$162 million. A year earlier, in the same fiscal quarter, it bought back 56 million ordinary shares (7 million ADSs) for US$815 million. That is roughly an 80% cut in ADS repurchases at a company that still had US$19.3 billion of authorization remaining as of June 30, 2025.
The cash was rerouted into silicon and concrete.
Where the Buyback Money Went Capital expenditures rose 75% year over year to RMB 67,678 million for AI infrastructure. Free cash flow deteriorated to negative RMB 44,670 million from negative RMB 18,815 million a year earlier. The newly disclosed AI Labs and Applications segment posted an adjusted EBITA loss of RMB 13,861 million, up from RMB 3,224 million. On top of that, the quarter absorbed a EUR 550 million European Commission fine and RMB 4,458 million goodwill impairment.
Internal cash is not covering the buildout alone. During fiscal 2026, Alibaba raised approximately US$3.2 billion in convertible notes and HK$12 billion in exchangeable bonds to fund cloud and international commerce, and total debt to adjusted EBITDA doubled to 2.29x. Full-year FY26 repurchases came in at just US$1.046 billion, a fraction of prior years.
Management Frames It as an ROIC Bet CEO Eddie Wu was direct about the shift. “AI has become Alibaba’s most certain growth engine,” he told analysts on the August 20 call. CFO Toby Xu argued the math works: “Our AI plus cloud investment has a clear path to attractive ROIC.” Management said AI hardware typically reaches break-even within three years on a five-year useful life, with AI compute supply expected to remain constrained industry-wide until at least 2030. That constraint is the whole reason the power, cooling, and networking suppliers behind the buildout keep drawing capital, a group we profiled in a free report on seven AI infrastructure names that aren’t chipmakers.
The revenue side supports the case. AI Cloud and Compute Services revenue grew 45%, and AI-related product revenue posted triple-digit growth for the twelfth consecutive quarter. Cloud external growth hit a 22-quarter high, and MaaS annual run rate surpassed RMB 16 billion as of August, tracking a year-end target above RMB 30 billion.
What Investors Should Watch Next Shares closed at $130.53 on August 20, up 1.26% on the day and 6.88% over the past week, though still down 10.09% year to date. The setup is straightforward: if Qwen monetization and Zhenwu chip deployments compound as guided, the buyback cut looks like disciplined reinvestment. If AI Labs losses keep widening past RMB 13,861 million without matching cloud margin expansion, the balance sheet, now carrying US$46.5 billion in net cash, becomes the shock absorber. Wu made the trade-off explicit: “It’s only possible to monetize when you have that compute capacity in place.”
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) reported mixed results for its first quarter on Thursday.
Alibaba reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue of $39.64 billion, up 9% year over year and above the $38.63 billion analyst estimate. However, adjusted earnings per ADS fell 42% to $1.26, missing expectations of $1.85. Adjusted net income declined 38% to $3.05 billion, while adjusted EBITA fell 30% to $4.03 billion. Net income plunged 75% to $1.54 billion.
“We delivered a strong quarter, driven by the improving commercialization of our full‑stack AI capabilities,” said Eddie Wu, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group. “Alibaba Cloud’s external revenue growth accelerated to 45%, with AI-related product revenue delivering triple-digit growth for the twelfth consecutive quarter. We recently launched frontier language, coding, video, audio, image and music models, all delivering top-tier performance. We introduced QwenWork, an AI workforce agent that unleashes enterprise productivity and capabilities. With our full‑stack AI strategy, we have put Alibaba in a superior position to capture the substantial growth of demand for artificial intelligence and AI compute.”
Alibaba shares dipped 8.4% to trade at $119.62 on Friday.
These analysts made changes to their price targets on Alibaba following earnings announcement.
Baird analyst Colin Sebastian maintained the stock with an Outperform rating and lowered the price target from $164 to $160. Barclays analyst Jiong Shao maintained the stock with an Overweight rating and raised the price target from $195 to $200. JP Morgan analyst Alex Yao maintained the stock with an Overweight rating and raised the price target from $205 to $210. Considering buying BABA stock? Here’s what analysts think:
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Alibaba Group (BABA +1.26%), which shot to fame and prominence as China's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink e-commerce giant, is in the midst of a long transformation. It's reshaping itself as a leading artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services provider in the massive Asian country, and, in my view, that's what pushed its U.S.-listed stock up on Thursday.
This, despite a second-quarter earnings report published that morning, in which it missed badly on the bottom line. Here's what happened.
Image source: Alibaba.
A high-cost quarterBefore market open, Alibaba revealed that its revenue for the period was just under 269 billion yuan ($40 billion), representing a gain of 9% year over year. Net income not under generally accepted accounting principles (non-GAAP, or adjusted) veered hard in the other direction, though, tumbling by 38% to 20.7 billion yuan ($3.1 billion). That shakes out to 8.52 yuan ($1.27) per each of the company's American Depositary Shares (ADSes).
Alibaba's revenue more or less met the consensus analyst estimate. That sure wasn't the case for profitability, as pundits tracking the Asian tech giant were modeling 10.72 yuan ($1.59) per ADS, on average.
The company's bottom line was affected by several large items. Chief among these was a ramp-up in capital expenditures; these leaped by 75% to almost 67.7 billion yuan ($10.1 billion). In what's become a global trend, Alibaba has lately invested heavily in AI infrastructure to both support its legacy business and bolster its own AI and cloud offerings.
Profitability also took a hit from an accounting charge Alibaba booked in the quarter for a record fine imposed on it last month. The European Commission -- the executive body of the 27-member European Union (EU) -- slapped the company's international e-commerce business AliExpress with a 550 million euro ($642 million) sanction over violations of the EU's Digital Services Act, which prohibits the dissemination of harmful and illegal online content. This third and largest fine handed down under the still relatively new law occurred in late July.
Such costs weren’t beneficial for the company's free cash flow, which turned negative by almost 44.7 billion yuan ($6.6 billion). In the second quarter of 2025, it was positive at 18.8 billion yuan ($2.8 billion).
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The burden of past gloryAnother factor is the plain fact that Alibaba's legacy domestic e-commerce business looks mature these days. Yes, the company is still very powerful in the sector; however, a sluggish Chinese economy and intense competition are weighing on it. The company's e-commerce operations in the country saw a 8% revenue decline during the quarter, to just under 111 billion yuan ($16.5 billion).
That's probably why management took pains to talk up the performance of the rapidly expanding AI and cloud business. Revenue from these hot areas of the tech world zoomed 45% higher, reminiscent of the days when the company regularly posted such growth numbers. AI and cloud still isn't close to topping e-commerce as the No. 1 contributor to the overall Alibaba top line; it came in at 48.4 billion yuan ($7.2 billion). But if it can exceed, maintain, or even come close to that growth pace in future quarters, it has a good shot at doing so.
I feel that's what tipped sentiment on Alibaba into positive territory on Thursday. Yet the slight bump in ADS price on Thursday indicates optimism of the cautious variety. I think this has to do with Alibaba still being considered very much an online retailer, with much to prove in its embrace of AI and cloud services.
To me, though, 45% growth and a revenue line approaching 50 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) for a single quarter prove this is no young upstart experiencing a one-time pop. Alibaba is a serious player in those technologies and is rapidly becoming a powerhouse in both. Meanwhile, given its prominence and presence in the e-commerce field, I believe that business will slump a bit in the worst-case scenario, but more likely flat-line or eke out a little growth going forward.
The combination of a solid base and a hotly growing, sustainable business will make Alibaba's equity a more compelling buy than the post-earnings reaction suggests, in my opinion.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) Q1 2027 Earnings Call August 20, 2026 7:30 AM EDT
Company Participants
Lydia Lu - Head of Investor Relations
Yongming Wu - CEO, Head of Core E-Commerce Business & Director
Toby Xu - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Alicis a Yap - Citigroup Inc., Research Division
Charlene Liu - HSBC Global Investment Research
Yang Bai - China International Capital Corporation Limited, Research Division
Yuan Liao - Citic Securities Co., Ltd., Research Division
Alex Yao - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Presentation
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Alibaba Group's June Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].
I would now like to turn the call over to Lydia Lu, Head of Investor Relations of Alibaba Group. Please go ahead.
Lydia Lu
Head of Investor Relations
Thank you. Good day, everyone, and welcome to Alibaba Group's June Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Joining the call today are Joe Tsai, Chairman; Eddie Wu, Chief Executive Officer; Toby Xu, Chief Financial Officer; Jiang Fan, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba E-commerce Business Group.
Before we get started, I would like to remind you that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties. We also make reference to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP measures are included in today's earnings press release and investor presentation. Our comments will be on year-over-year comparisons unless we state otherwise. A replay of the call will be available on our website later today.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to Eddie.
Yongming Wu
CEO, Head of Core E-Commerce Business & Director
Good evening, good morning, and welcome to Alibaba Group's Earnings Call for the First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2027. Over the past quarter, Alibaba's strategic AI
For all the excitement around artificial intelligence, investors have had surprisingly little visibility into one key question: how much revenue is AI actually generating? Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) (OTC:BABAF) offered one of the clearest answers yet during its fiscal first quarter earnings call, revealing that AI-related products now account for 35% of Alibaba Cloud’s external revenue—a rare metric that shows AI is becoming a meaningful commercial business rather than simply a growth narrative.
Alibaba Puts a Number on AI MonetizationChief Executive Officer Eddie Wu said the annual revenue run rate from AI-related products exceeded RMB 49.5 billion ($7.34 billion), adding that AI’s share of Alibaba Cloud’s external revenue “rose to 35%” during the quarter.
Chief Financial Officer Toby Xu reinforced the point, saying AI-related product revenue delivered a “12th consecutive quarter of triple-digit growth.” Xu added that quarterly AI-related revenue reached RMB 12.4 billion ($1.84 billion), implying an annualized run rate of RMB 49.5 billion.
While technology companies have broadly touted growing demand for AI, few have disclosed what percentage of their cloud revenue is directly tied to AI products. Alibaba’s latest disclosure therefore offers investors a more tangible measure of how quickly AI is becoming embedded in its cloud business.
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Why the 35% Milestone MattersThree years of triple-digit growth is what turns a disclosure into a trend. It suggests AI spending at Alibaba Cloud has moved past pilot projects into budgeted, recurring work — the difference between customers testing a product and customers depending on one.
It also gives investors something they have largely lacked: a number to track. Alibaba is spending heavily on AI models and data center capacity, and until now the return on that spending has been described rather than measured. A percentage that either climbs or stalls next quarter is a test management has agreed to be graded on.
What Investors Should Watch NextThe next question is whether AI can continue expanding its share of Alibaba Cloud revenue while maintaining its exceptional growth rate.
If that percentage continues to climb in coming quarters, it would strengthen the case that AI is becoming the primary engine of Alibaba’s cloud business—and provide investors with one of the clearest indicators yet that the company’s AI investments are delivering measurable commercial returns.
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Alibaba rozšiřuje quick commerce mimo jídlo do čerstvých potravin, zdravotnictví a supermarketů. Ve 4. čtvrtletí fiskálního roku 2026 výnosy z quick commerce vzrostly o 57 % na RMB 20 miliard.
Key Takeaways Alibaba is using quick commerce to deepen engagement across Taobao, Tmall and Freshippo.Broader categories are expanding quick commerce beyond food into fresh produce, healthcare and supermarkets.Better fulfillment efficiency and order mix are improving unit economics as Alibaba continues investing. Alibaba Group (BABA - Free Report) is positioning quick commerce as an important growth lever for its China e-commerce business. The model is expanding beyond food delivery into categories such as fresh produce, healthcare and supermarket products. This is broadening the use cases for Alibaba's e-commerce ecosystem, spanning Taobao, Tmall and Freshippo, and is helping drive stronger consumer engagement.
Quick commerce is creating tighter links with Alibaba's core e-commerce platforms. Faster fulfillment is allowing consumers to purchase a wider range of products for immediate needs, increasing transaction opportunities across Taobao and Tmall. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, quick commerce revenues grew 57% to RMB 20 billion, underscoring the pace at which the format is scaling. Over the same period, China E-commerce Group revenues rose 6% to RMB 122 billion, with customer management revenue up 8% on a like-for-like basis, pointing to the broader engagement benefits management is citing from quick commerce, including accelerated growth at Freshippo and Tmall Supermarket.
The economics of quick commerce are also improving. Order mix optimization and better fulfillment efficiency are helping raise unit economics, with average order value increasing sequentially as the business scales. This matters because Alibaba is still investing heavily in the segment. Improving unit economics should gradually reduce the drag on China e-commerce profitability.
Scale is becoming another growth driver. Quick commerce order volume reached 2.7 times the level of the same quarter last year, with non-food orders expanding three times, allowing Alibaba to deepen its presence in higher-frequency purchases while generating additional traffic across Taobao, Tmall and Freshippo. As quick commerce continues scaling and its unit economics keep improving, the business is becoming better positioned to support Alibaba's e-commerce growth going forward.
How BABA is Placed Against PeersAlibaba's quick commerce push is unfolding alongside JD.com (JD - Free Report) and Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , both of which are expanding fast delivery to capture higher-frequency demand. JD.com is scaling instant delivery through its owned logistics network across China, while Amazon is investing in same-day delivery infrastructure to strengthen its quick commerce reach globally. Compared with JD.com and Amazon, Alibaba is differentiating itself through deeper integration with Taobao, Tmall, and Freshippo, aiming to convert quick-commerce traffic into broader marketplace engagement. As JD.com, Amazon and Alibaba all pursue unit economics improvement in quick commerce, execution speed and category expansion are likely to determine relative positioning in this space.
BABA’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesBABA shares have plunged 12% in the year-to-date period, underperforming the Zacks Internet – Commerce industry and the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector’s appreciation of 6.1% and 3.9%, respectively.
BABA’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, BABA is currently trading at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28X, below the sector’s average of 22.48X. The company carries a Value Score of C.
BABA’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at $6.87 per share, implying 76.61% year-over-year growth.
Alibaba currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Alibaba v 1. fiskálním čtvrtletí 2027 snížila čistý zisk o více než 75 % na 10,5 miliardy jüanů kvůli vyšším investicím do AI. Tržby vzrostly o 9 % na 269 miliard jüanů, ale akcie v premarketu ztrácely kolem 4 %.
Výrazné navýšení investic do AI a související infrastruktury s sebou přineslo razantní pokles zisku. Čínská skupina Alibaba vykázala v prvním fiskálním čtvrtletí roku 2027 pokles čistého zisku o více než 75 procent na 10,5 miliardy jüanů. Zároveň došlo k významnému odlivu volného cash flow, který přesáhl 6,6 miliardy dolarů. Investoři na to reagovali negativně a akcie firmy kótované na burze ve Spojených ztrácí v premarketu kolem čtyř procent.
Tržby sice meziročně vzrostly o devět procent na 269 miliard juanů, což odpovídalo očekávání trhu, a cloudová divize těžila ze silné poptávky po výpočetním výkonu pro AI aplikace, investoři se ale očividně více zaměřili na náklady spojené s rozvojem tohoto segmentu, které výrazně zatížily hospodářské výsledky firmy.
Alibaba v letošním roce posílila své postavení mezi globálně významnými hráči v oblasti umělé inteligence. Její vlajkový model Qwen patří mezi nejpoužívanější AI systémy na světě a firma vynaložila desítky miliard dolarů na nákup čipů, výstavbu datových center i vývoj pokročilých autonomních AI aplikací.
Právě rychlé navyšování výdajů však začíná doléhat na profitabilitu společnosti. Vedle rostoucích nákladů se Alibaba musí nadále vyrovnávat také se slabší spotřebitelskou poptávkou v Číně, která negativně ovlivňuje její tradiční internetový obchod, podotýká agentura Bloomberg.
Generální ředitel Eddie Wu orientuje společnost čím dál více na cloudové a AI služby, které vnímá jako hlavní motor budoucího růstu. Zároveň Wu pokračuje v prodeji aktivit, které nepovažuje za strategické. Za poslední dva roky se tak Alibaba zbavila několika vedlejších podniků, naposledy herní divize Lingxi Games.
Wu už dříve uvedl, že rozvoj AI má přednost před krátkodobou ziskovostí. Firma proto plánuje pokračovat v investicích i nad rámec dříve oznámeného tříletého rozpočtu ve výši 380 miliard jüanů. Ambicí vedení je během příštích pěti let zvýšit příjmy z cloudových a AI služeb až na 100 miliard dolarů, informuje Bloomberg.
„Náskok Alibaby v oblasti umělé inteligence oproti konkurentům by měl být v roce 2027 snadněji kvantifikovatelný, pokud se udrží rostoucí návratnost investic do umělé inteligence. Uklidnění cenové války v oblasti doručovacích služeb by mělo zlepšit provozní cash flow, nicméně rekordní kapitálové výdaje by mohly velkou část zisků absorbovat, protože Alibaba buduje vše: od vlastní výroby čipů až po AI aplikace,“ uvedli analytici Bloomberg Inteligence Catherine Limová a Jason Zhu.
Další růst příjmů si chce Alibaba zajistit prostřednictvím placených AI služeb. Zaměřuje se především na programátorské nástroje a takzvané agentní platformy, kde se střetává s konkurencí v podobě Tencentu a ByteDance. Právě ByteDance již letos zavedla předplatné pro svou populární aplikaci Doubao, jež patří mezi nejrozšířenější AI produkty v Číně.
Kromě toho Alibaba rozvíjí vlastní aplikaci Qwen, jež funguje jako univerzální digitální asistent pro každodenní úkoly včetně nakupování nebo plateb. Jejím přímým konkurentem je AI agent od Tencentu, který je integrovaný do jeho platformy WeChat.
China's Alibaba (9988.HK), on Thursday reported a 9% rise in quarterly revenue, as strong demand for AI services fueled growth in its cloud business, while an extended "618" shopping festival boosted its core e-commerce unit.
As businesses increasingly deploy artificial intelligence applications, demand for the cloud computing power needed to train and run those systems has surged, benefiting China's largest technology companies.
Alibaba, the country's biggest cloud services provider, has stepped up investment in AI infrastructure, proprietary models and applications, positioning the technology as a key growth driver for its cloud and consumer businesses.
The company's AI cloud and compute services revenue rose 45% to 48.44 billion yuan in the quarter.
Alibaba's capital expenditures rose 75% to 67.68 billion yuan in the quarter ended June 30, as it continued to invest in AI infrastructure to meet strong customer demand.
The company reported revenue of 268.95 billion yuan ($40.02 billion) in the first quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of 268.88 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Alibaba reports June-quarter results on Thursday with investors looking to its cloud business to end a four-quarter run of earnings disappointments.
The company will release results before the US market opens, followed by a conference call at 7:30 a.m. ET.
Alibaba enters the print with renewed enthusiasm around Qwen and cloud computing, but a tougher test: whether rapid AI growth is becoming profitable enough to offset weaker Chinese consumption and heavy investment.
UBS and Jefferies expect group revenue growth of about 9%, up from 3% in the previous quarter, while UBS sees cloud revenue rising roughly 45%.
Cloud is now the clearest measure of whether Alibaba’s AI strategy is translating into commercial demand.
At the previous update, external cloud revenue growth accelerated to 40%, while AI-related product revenue posted triple-digit growth for an 11th consecutive quarter. That has raised expectations.
UBS analysts led by Kenneth Fong said investors were likely to “refocus on its valuable AI assets and AI growth angle,” according to the South China Morning Post.
UBS expects cloud revenue growth of about 45% and annual recurring revenue from AI model services of roughly 10 billion yuan.
Morgan Stanley analyst Gary Yu is bullish. TipRanks reported that Yu expects cloud growth of about 45% year on year, ahead of market expectations, with margins improving towards 11%.
However, Cloud remains smaller than Alibaba’s commerce operations, leaving the company exposed to China’s subdued consumer backdrop.
JD.com offered a reminder when its quarterly revenue fell 2.9% year on year, its first decline in more than a decade, despite beating analyst expectations.
Yu has flagged pressure in Alibaba’s core e-commerce business from soft consumption.
Citi analyst Alicia Yap expects weaker customer-management revenue after subdued retail sales and the 6.18 shopping festival.
Yap expects cloud revenue to grow about 45%, with cloud margins reaching roughly 11.5%. She also sees smaller quick-commerce losses and stronger cloud profitability helping offset weaker retail trends.
That is the earnings tension investors must resolve. Cloud is growing far faster than commerce, but commerce remains larger.
Alibaba therefore needs AI growth to become visible in group profits, not simply in headline growth percentages.
Alibaba has missed EPS expectations in four consecutive quarters, making another respectable report unlikely to reset sentiment on its own.
Investors will be watching three areas: whether cloud growth reaches the roughly 45% level expected by major brokers, whether cloud margins improve as AI demand scales, and whether quick-commerce losses continue narrowing.
Barclays has positioned for upside. The bank recommended call spreads ahead of earnings, citing accelerating cloud growth, AI recurring revenue exceeding targets, faster improvement in quick-commerce losses and stabilising core-commerce profitability.
The options market was pricing an earnings move of about 6%, below Alibaba’s six-quarter average realised move of 7.6%.
People visit an Alibaba booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China July 26, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesDeal comes as Alibaba focuses resources on AI and cloud computingInternal memo says Trustar Capital will acquire Alibaba's Lingxi stakeLingxi CEO Zhou Bingshu and management team to remain in placeLingxi is known for hit mobile strategy game 'Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition'HONG KONG, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group (9988.HK), opens new tab is expected to reap more than $2 billion from the sale of its game developer unit Lingxi Games to private equity firm Trustar Capital, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Alibaba and Trustar have reached a formal agreement after several rounds of talks, according to an internal memo sent to Lingxi staff on Monday by the game developer's CEO Zhou Bingshu and reviewed by Reuters.
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Lingxi, Alibaba and Trustar did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Under the agreement, Alibaba will transfer all of its Lingxi stake to Trustar, the memo said.
The memo did not disclose the value of the deal or when the transaction was expected to close. It also gave no details of regulatory approvals or other conditions attached to the deal.
Zhou said in the memo he and Lingxi's management team would continue to lead the company, signalling continuity in the studio's operations following the ownership change.
Bloomberg News, which first reported the memo, said the deal would be worth at least $1.5 billion, citing sources.
AI-FOCUSED ALIBABA REVIEWING NON-CORE ASSETSAlibaba, one of China's largest technology companies, operates e-commerce platforms, cloud-computing services and other digital businesses. It has been reviewing non-core assets as it directs capital and management attention toward strategic priorities including AI and cloud.
The Chinese tech company had been seeking a buyer for Lingxi for some time, according to two separate sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is confidential.
Trustar, formerly known as CITIC Capital, is an Asia-focused private equity firm that has the industry resources and operational expertise to support Lingxi's next stage of development, according to Zhou.
It was not immediately clear whether Alibaba would retain any commercial ties with Lingxi after the sale, including publishing, cloud services or technology partnerships.
LINGXI IN TRANSITIONGuangzhou-based Lingxi Games is best known for 'Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition', a multiplayer strategy title based on China's Three Kingdoms era.
The game was developed in collaboration with Japan's Koei Tecmo Holdings (3635.T), opens new tab, whose franchises include 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' and 'Nobunaga's Ambition'.
The transaction between Alibaba and Trustar would extend a period of change for Lingxi, which had previously explored external fundraising, the two sources said. A fundraising process planned in late 2023 stalled after China proposed tighter rules for the online gaming sector, one of them said.
Lingxi also underwent a management reshuffle in 2024. Zhou, who had led the team behind 'Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition', became CEO after founder Zhan Zhonghui departed, according to Chinese corporate records.
Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; Additional reporting by Hong Kong newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Kane Wu covers M&A, private equity, venture capital and investment banks in Asia. She tracks the region's most high-profile deals, fundraisings as well as investment trends amidst geopolitical, macroeconomic and regulatory changes. She was nominated for a SOPA Excellence in Business Reporting award for coverage of China regulatory crackdown in 2021. Prior to Reuters, she worked at the Wall Street Journal and also wrote about Asia's loan market for Thomson Reuters Basis Point. She is based in Hong Kong.
Eduardo Baptista is Chief Technology Correspondent, Greater China, for Reuters, based in Beijing. He covers artificial intelligence, semiconductors and emerging technologies. He holds a BA in History from the University of Cambridge.
Apple spolupracuje se společností Alibaba Group na vývoji modelu AI pro Čínu a plánuje tam během několika měsíců spustit Apple Intelligence. Může se stát první zahraniční firmou s čínským schválením pro vlastní model.
Apple worked with Alibaba Group to develop and train an Apple artificial intelligence model specifically for the Chinese market, Reuters reported Friday (Aug. 14), citing unnamed sources.
Apple has previously used third-party models to power the AI features it offers in the iPhones and other devices it sells in China, according to the report.
Now, following the collaboration with Alibaba Group, the company plans to launch its Apple Intelligence suite of AI tools in China within months, the report said.
Having its own model tailored for China would give Apple greater control over the AI experience it offers in the market, per the report.
The offering would also make Apple the first foreign company to secure Chinese government approval to offer a proprietary model in the country, the report said.
Neither Apple nor Alibaba immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
It was reported in February 2025 that a top executive from Alibaba said that his company had formed an AI partnership with Apple.
Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai said at the time that the tech firm would work with Apple to help bring AI-powered iPhones to China.
“Apple has been very selective,” Tsai said. “They talked to a number of companies in China, and in the end, they chose to do business with us.”
“They want to use our AI to power their phones, so we’re very fortunate and extremely honored to be able to do business with a great company like Apple,” Tsai added.
It was reported in December that smartphone companies in China were promoting apps to help customers switch from Apple’s iPhone and that this signaled a bid by the companies to capture market share while Apple struggled to debut AI offerings in the country’s massive smartphone market.
However, in March it was reported that Apple was enjoying a sales boost in China even as the country’s smartphone market was seeing a downturn. The report attributed Apple’s gains to eCommerce discounts, the fact that its base iPhone 17 model qualified for government subsidies and the fact that Apple’s “strong control” of its supply chain left it better positioned to absorb the cost of memory chips and keep prices steady.
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Apple zveřejnil návod, podle kterého mohou vybraní uživatelé Maců v pevninské Číně propojit Siri a Writing Tools se službou AI Qwen od Alibaba. Tah má Applu pomoct na čínském trhu AI PC.
Qwen and Alibaba logos are seen in this illustration taken, January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesEligible China users can connect Qwen to Apple Intelligence on MacSino-American tie-up could help Apple in China's AI PC marketPartnership broadens Qwen's reach beyond Alibaba ecosystemBEIJING, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab has published a guide explaining how eligible Mac users in mainland China can connect Alibaba's (9988.HK), opens new tab Qwen artificial-intelligence service to the U.S. tech giant's Siri digital assistant and Writing Tools feature.
The Mac-specific arrangement could help Apple compete in China's AI PC market, where it has been losing market share as domestic manufacturers such as Lenovo have promoted locally developed AI features.
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Here are some details:
Qwen is Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba's family of generative-AI models, which can create text and images and analyse documents, photos and other material in response to user prompts.
Apple's updated Chinese-language guide says users who opt in can use Qwen through Siri for more detailed responses to some requests, including analysis of photos and documents. Writing Tools can also draw on the service to create text or images from a description.
The extension is intended for Macs running macOS 26.6 or later, subject to China-specific conditions. Users must activate the extension and sign in to a Qwen account.
Alibaba cannot use those materials to train or improve its models, according to the guide.
Mac shipments in mainland China fell 9% in the first quarter year on year to about 800,000 units, leaving it with 9% of the PC market, versus Lenovo's 31% and fast-growing Huawei's 16%, according to Omdia.
Lenovo (0992.HK), opens new tab has made its Tianxi personal AI agent central to its AI-PC strategy, while Huawei is building AI functions across its HarmonyOS ecosystem.
Linking Qwen to Siri and Writing Tools gives Apple a locally compliant route to offer more capable document, image and content-creation functions while retaining control of the Mac interface.
For Alibaba, integration with Apple's built-in software could broaden Qwen's reach beyond its own applications and cloud services.
Alibaba has said Qwen will be incorporated into Apple Intelligence across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro software in China, though Apple's newly published guide covers Macs only.
Alibaba this week released Qwen3.8-Max, a 2.4-trillion-parameter model it says is its most capable to date. Apple's guide does not identify which Qwen model will power the Mac extension.
Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Susan Fenton
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Eduardo Baptista is a Senior Correspondent for Reuters based in Beijing, covering China’s technology, space, and automotive industries. He has led enterprise and investigative reporting on China’s military-linked companies, artificial intelligence and semiconductor supply chains, as well as macroeconomic and industrial policy. Baptista has reported from China for nearly a decade and holds a BA in History from the University of Cambridge.
Alibaba představila Qwen3.8-Max, svůj dosud největší model umělé inteligence s 2,4 bilionu parametrů. V žebříčku textových modelů se hned zařadil mezi nejlepší čínské systémy a v obrazových modelech skončil celosvětově druhý.
Qwen and Alibaba logos are seen in this illustration taken, January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesQwen3.8-Max has 2.4 trillion parameters, approaching Kimi K3's sizeIt shoots up AI text and visual model leaderboards, lagging only Anthropic offeringsAlibaba says new model completed software engineering project in 16 daysBEIJING, Aug 3 (Reuters) - China's Alibaba (9988.HK), opens new tab on Monday unveiled what it said is its largest and most capable artificial-intelligence model, the Qwen3.8-Max, which is not far behind in size when compared with an offering from domestic rival Moonshot AI launched last month.
Chinese tech companies — a huge force in open-weight AI models globally — are locked in a fierce and fast-moving battle to build more powerful systems without making them prohibitively expensive to run.
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Qwen3.8-Max has 2.4 trillion parameters, the numerical settings a model learns from data and uses to recognise patterns, generate answers, and carry out tasks. Moonshot's Kimi K3 has 2.8 trillion parameters.
A higher figure does not automatically make a model better, but it has become a closely watched measure of the scale of the computing and data behind advanced AI systems.
Chinese tech companies are keen to publish parameter count to help their models gain traction among the developer community. Their models tend to be open-weight, meaning the underlying learned settings that allow developers to run or adapt the system are available for download.
By contrast, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab do not publish parameter count for their closed-source models.
Qwen3.8-Max was unveiled on crowdsourced, model-comparison platform Arena.AI, where it immediately became the highest-ranking Chinese model in terms of text models, though it still lags Claude Fable 5 and three Opus variants which are all from Anthropic.
But on Arena.AI's leaderboard for AI models that analyse images and other visual material, Qwen3.8-Max ranked second globally, only behind a Claude Fable 5 variant.
Both Qwen3.8-Max and Kimi K3 can handle text, images and video, and process up to 1 million tokens at a time.
Tokens are chunks of data, often parts of words or short words, and a big figure means the model can take in large amounts of material in one go, such as long legal files, a large software codebase or hundreds of pages of documents.
Alibaba said its model uses a "mixture-of-experts" design, which divides work among specialised parts of the system instead of switching on the entire model for every request. Only 95 billion parameters are used at a time, reducing costs and response delays.
The tech giant said the model completed a software-engineering project in 16 days.
The Qwen3.8-Max is due to be released next week through Alibaba Cloud's Model Studio platform.
Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Eduardo Baptista is a Senior Correspondent for Reuters based in Beijing, covering China’s technology, space, and automotive industries. He has led enterprise and investigative reporting on China’s military-linked companies, artificial intelligence and semiconductor supply chains, as well as macroeconomic and industrial policy. Baptista has reported from China for nearly a decade and holds a BA in History from the University of Cambridge.
Alibaba ve fiskálním roce 2026 snížila provozní cash flow o 53 % a volné cash flow se propadlo do odlivu 46,6 miliardy RMB z přílivu 73,9 miliardy RMB. Důvodem jsou vyšší investice do AI, cloudu a quick commerce.
Key Takeaways Alibaba's operating cash flow fell 53% in FY26 as investment spending accelerated.Free cash flow swung to an RMB46.6 billion outflow from an RMB73.9 billion inflow.Cloud revenues accelerated, but sustained AI spending could keep free cash flow under pressure. Alibaba's (BABA - Free Report) weakening cash flow could become a headwind to its long-term growth potential if heavy investments continue to outpace cash generation. The company generated solid revenue growth in fiscal 2026, but its cash generation deteriorated sharply as it accelerated spending on AI infrastructure, cloud capacity, quick commerce and the Qwen AI ecosystem. Operating cash flow declined 53% year over year in fiscal 2026, while free cash flow swung to an outflow of RMB46.6 billion from an inflow of RMB73.9 billion a year earlier. This decline is primarily due to investments in quick commerce, cloud infrastructure and Qwen user acquisition, underscoring that these initiatives remain strategic priorities despite near-term financial pressure.
At the same time, management indicated that AI demand will require an even larger data center footprint over the next five years, implying sustained capital commitments that could keep free cash flow under pressure. Although Alibaba maintains a strong balance sheet, including RMB520.8 billion of cash and other liquid investments, continued negative free cash flow may eventually reduce financial flexibility if investment returns take longer to materialize.
On the positive side, Cloud Intelligence revenues continue to accelerate, supported by robust AI adoption, suggesting these investments could generate meaningful long-term returns. However, investors should closely monitor whether improving cloud monetization and operating efficiencies can offset persistent cash outflows. Until Alibaba demonstrates consistent recovery in ‘free cash flow’ alongside AI-driven revenue growth, cash flow weakness will likely remain a significant negative factor affecting its long-term investment potential.
How Does Alibaba Stack Up Against Its Main Rivals?Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) generates substantially stronger operating cash flow than Alibaba, enabling larger AI and cloud investments without compromising financial flexibility. Alphabet produced $39.1 billion in operating cash flow in the second quarter of 2026 while expanding AI infrastructure and strengthening its global monetization engine. Alphabet's diversified Search, YouTube and Cloud businesses provide durable competitive advantages, whereas Alibaba's free cash flow remains under pressure from aggressive AI investment.
Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) enjoys a stronger cash flow profile than Alibaba, supporting massive AI infrastructure spending backed by customer commitments and long-term returns. Amazon continues funding AWS, custom chips and logistics expansion while expecting future free cash flow acceleration. Amazon benefits from diversified businesses, scale and enterprise demand.
BABA’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesBABA shares have declined 21.4% year to date compared with the industry’s fall of 4.1%.
BABA’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, BABA is currently trading at a price-to-book ratio of 1.7, below the sector’s average of 4.23. The company carries a Value Score of C.
BABA’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 and 2028 EPS has been revised downward over the past 30 and 60 days. The company has also missed earnings expectations in each of the trailing four quarters, with an average negative surprise of 37.65%.
Alibaba čeká, že čínská politika v oblasti AI a plánované investice ve výši 295 miliard USD do datových center během pěti let podpoří růst cloudu a prodej čipů.
SummaryAlibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group achieved a 46.1% 10-year average growth rate, outpacing company-wide growth, supported by rising AI adoption and improved margins.Despite a decline in global cloud market share, Alibaba maintains strong AI competitiveness through proprietary Qwen models and competitive pricing.Chinese government AI policies and $295B in planned data center capex over 5 years are expected to boost Alibaba's chip sales and cloud segment growth. maybefalse/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
By Nicholas Tan, Investment Research Analyst @ Khaveen Investments
In our previous analysis of Alibaba (BABA), we expected Alibaba to continue growing in China’s e-commerce market despite facing strong competition. We further believed
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Key Takeaways Alibaba narrowed AIDC's fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITA loss, moving the unit closer to break-even.Brand and AI tools are boosting monetization, merchant productivity and customer engagement.European compliance costs could slow profitability as fiscal 2027 earnings are projected to rise 15.28%. Alibaba’s (BABA - Free Report) international commerce business is narrowing losses, positioning the segment as a stronger long-term growth driver. Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC) — which includes AliExpress, Alibaba.com, Lazada and Trendyol — significantly reduced its adjusted EBITA loss in fiscal 2026 as management improved logistics efficiency, optimized operations and enhanced unit economics, bringing the business closer to break-even.
The Brand+ initiative is attracting higher-quality brands and consumers, supporting stronger monetization, while AI-powered tools such as Accio and Accio Work are helping merchants automate sourcing, product listings and business operations, improving productivity and customer engagement. Alibaba.com’s global B2B marketplace, spanning buyers in more than 190 countries and generating revenues from memberships, value-added services, logistics and digital marketing, provides a diversified foundation for future international expansion. Alibaba has also continued strengthening its cross-border commerce ecosystem by expanding AI capabilities for merchants and broadening its Trade Assurance program into additional markets, reinforcing its strategy to accelerate profitable international growth.
However, investors should monitor regulatory risks, particularly in Europe, where increased compliance requirements and penalties for marketplace operators could raise operating costs and slow the path to sustained profitability for Alibaba's international commerce business.
According to the Zacks Consensus Estimate, earnings are projected to grow 15.28% in fiscal 2027, indicating that continued improvement in international commerce could become an increasingly important contributor to Alibaba's long-term profitability and sustainable growth.
How Rivals Stack Up Against BABAAmazon (AMZN - Free Report) challenges Alibaba through its vast international marketplace, fulfillment network and Prime ecosystem. Amazon benefits from seller-friendly policies, including lower fees in Europe and Brazil, while faster delivery and logistics strengthen global reach. The company also expands cross-border opportunities through growing international operations. Amazon's scale, fulfillment efficiency and trusted brand remain key competitive advantages.
Global-e Online (GLBE - Free Report) competes with Alibaba by enabling brands to sell globally through localized merchant-of-record services. Global-e Online differentiates itself with compliance, duties, taxes, payments and fulfillment capabilities, while Managed Markets and Borderfree expand merchant reach. Global-e Online also benefits from AI-driven automation and growing demand for seamless cross-border commerce, reinforcing its competitive position.
BABA’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesBABA shares have declined 33.5% over the past six months compared with the industry’s fall of 4.2%.
BABA’s Six-Month Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 14.78 forward earnings, lower than 21.63 for the industry. BABA has a Value Score of C.
BABA’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 EPS has declined 6.78% to $6.88 over the past 60 days, and those for fiscal 2028 have decreased 9.06% to $9.53. However, the estimate still reflects robust year-over-year growth of 76.86%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Alibaba currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Alibaba v poslední obchodní den klesla o 2,14 % na 114,06 USD, tedy méně než S&P 500, který oslabil o 1,21 %. Trh čeká výsledky s EPS 1,94 USD a výnosy 38,63 mld. USD.
Alibaba (BABA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $114.06, moving -2.14% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.21% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.97%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.15%.
Shares of the online retailer witnessed a gain of 16.79% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Retail-Wholesale sector with its gain of 2.27%, and the S&P 500's gain of 0.42%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Alibaba in its upcoming release. On that day, Alibaba is projected to report earnings of $1.94 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 5.83%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $38.63 billion, indicating a 11.74% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $6.88 per share and a revenue of $167.61 billion, indicating changes of +76.86% and +15.28%, respectively, from the former year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Alibaba. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 6.1% lower. Right now, Alibaba possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
With respect to valuation, Alibaba is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.93. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 16.93, which means Alibaba is trading at no noticeable deviation to the group.
We can additionally observe that BABA currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.96. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. As the market closed yesterday, the Internet - Commerce industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.11.
The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 158, which puts it in the bottom 36% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.
Jim Cramer řekl, že Alibaba je „stále nejlepší způsob, jak hrát Čínu“, a doporučil držet pozici. Akcie v pondělí otevřely na 114,97 USD a intradenně vyskočily o 5,71 %; letos jsou dole zhruba 17,51 %.
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On the July 16, 2026 episode of Mad Money, a caller identified as D phoned in about his sizable Alibaba (NYSE:BABA | BABA Price Prediction) position and asked Jim Cramer whether patience was still the right call. Cramer’s response was to hold the position and let the investment cycle play out.
Cramer told D, “I think you need to have patience here. I think it’s just down on a dip. It’s really still the best way to play China.“ He then framed his own geopolitical stance, saying, “I am a harder line on the Chinese than most people you see on air. But you know what? I want to try to help people make money, and I think you can make money on Alibaba.“ Cramer also referenced China’s GDP growth figures as “down 20% and 4.4%” during the segment.
Alibaba Is Sacrificing Profits to Build Its AI Future Alibaba, run by CEO Eddie Wu, is in a deliberate reinvestment phase. Fiscal Q4 2026, reported May 13, 2026, showed revenue of $35.28 billion, up 3% YoY, with EPS of $0.09 and an operating loss of $123 million. Adjusted EBITA collapsed 84% to $740 million as the company poured capital into AI infrastructure and quick commerce. Free cash flow ran to negative $2.508 billion on capex of $3.898 billion.
Cloud Revenue Jumps 40% as Alibaba’s AI Bet Takes Off The bright spot was the business’s cloud unit. Cloud Intelligence Group revenue accelerated to 40% growth, with AI-related products at 30% of external cloud revenue, hitting an 11th consecutive quarter of triple-digit AI product growth. CEO Eddie Wu said, “Alibaba’s full-stack AI investments have progressed from incubation to commercialization at scale.”
BABA opened at $114.97 on Monday, July 20, before soaring 5.71% in intraday trading. The stock is down roughly 17.51% year-to-date but up 13.50% over the past month. Wall Street’s consensus target sits at $190.01, with 8 Strong Buy and 30 Buy ratings against just 2 negative calls.
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Cramer Says Balance Alibaba With These 2 Long-Term Winners Cramer paired his Alibaba call with 2 other top long-term ideas: “If you want some long-term winners, look at something like a J&J or Wells Fargo.” Both fit the steady-compounder profile that balances a volatile China ADR.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) posted Q1 2026 revenue of $24.06B, up 9.9% YoY, and raised FY guidance to $100.3B-$101.3B in revenue with adjusted EPS of $11.45-$11.65. It just delivered its 64th consecutive year of dividend increases. Shares are up 23.63% YTD and carry a beta of 0.235.
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), under CEO Charlie Scharf, reported Q1 2026 revenue of $21.45B and EPS of $1.60, returned $5.4B to shareholders including dividends, and now targets ROTCE of 17-18% after the Fed’s asset cap was removed in 2025. It trades at a forward P/E of just 12.
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AliExpress dostal od EU rekordní pokutu 550 milionů eur za to, že na platformě neřešil prodej nelegálního, nebezpečného a padělaného zboží. Firma musí do 20. října navrhnout nápravná opatření.
The logo of AliExpress is pictured at AliExpress store, in Granada, Spain, July 22, 2024. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesCommission says AliExpress left counterfeit goods, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics online for weeksAliExpress faces October 20 deadline for remediesFurther penalty possible if remedies not sufficientAliExpress had 193 million European users last yearBRUSSELS, July 20 (Reuters) - Alibaba's (9988.HK), opens new tab AliExpress was hit with a record €550 million ($629 million) fine from the European Union on Monday for failing to tackle sales of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products on its platform.
The fine was the third issued by the European Commission under the EU's landmark Digital Services Act, which requires very large online platforms to do more to counter illegal and harmful content.
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The Commission charged AliExpress in June last year with failing to comply with a DSA requirement to assess and mitigate the risks of dissemination of illegal products.
It set an October 20 deadline for AliExpress to propose remedial measures, and the company could face further penalties if the regulator decides in December that they do not comply with the DSA.
"This is very dangerous for consumers, unfair for companies which are complying with all our rules," EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen told reporters.
She pointed to AliExpress's 193 million users in Europe last year versus Shein's 156 million and Temu's 130 million. Temu has also been fined under the DSA and Shein is facing an ongoing investigation.
"One in five Europeans say they shop once a month from Shein, Temu and AliExpress," Virkkunen said.
AliExpress criticised the EU fine, saying it was excessive.
"We disagree with today's decision and the disproportionate fine, which does not adequately reflect our established framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made," AliExpress said in an email.
"We are carefully reviewing the decision and considering all available options."
ALIEXPRESS PENALTY HIGHER THAN FINES FOR MUSK'S X AND TEMUThe Commission said that AliExpress had not properly evaluated whether it had enough people to review the risks and had overestimated the effectiveness of its system in detecting and removing illegal products.
The regulator criticised the company's recommender and advertising systems for exacerbating the spread of illegal products and its reliance on one quantitative indicator to measure its moderation system to prevent the risk of illegal products appearing or reappearing in similar forms.
It said the failure of AliExpress to detect illegal products meant that illegal products ranging from counterfeit products to unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics remained online for many weeks.
The Commission also took issue with the company's ineffective penalty policy, which resulted in penalised businesses continuing to sell illegal products on its platform.
It said that the mandatory AliExpress "brand authorisation" system – intended to prevent counterfeit sales – was ineffective and understaffed and was easily circumvented by traders selling fake products.
The regulator said the novelty of the DSA was a mitigating factor in calculating the fine, which could have been higher.
The penalty is significantly higher than the €120 million handed out to Elon Musk's social media platform X in December last year and the €200 million Temu was fined last May, both for DSA violations.
AliExpress dodged a fine, which could be as much as 6% of its global annual turnover, in June last year after agreeing to measures to tackle the dissemination of potentially illegal and pornographic materials on its platform.
($1 = 0.8743 euros)
Reporting by Foo Yun Chee Editing by Joe Bavier and David Goodman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
An agenda-setting and market-moving journalist, Foo Yun Chee is a 21-year veteran at Reuters. Her stories on high profile mergers have pushed up the European telecoms index, lifted companies' shares and helped investors decide on their next move. Her knowledge and experience of European antitrust laws and developments helped her break stories on Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple, numerous market-moving mergers and antitrust investigations. She has previously reported on Greek politics and companies, when Greece's entry into the eurozone meant it punched above its weight on the international stage, as well as on Dutch corporate giants and the quirks of Dutch society and culture that never fail to charm readers.
Alibaba's US-listed shares rose more than 6% on Wednesday after the Chinese technology giant confirmed that its Qwen artificial intelligence model will power Apple Intelligence features for users in China.
This marks a major milestone in Apple's long-delayed AI rollout in the country.
Apple shares also gained about 1.8%, while Baidu's US-listed stock climbed roughly 2.8% after the company separately confirmed it was also collaborating with Apple on AI features for Chinese iPhone users.
The announcement came after China's cyberspace regulator approved Apple Intelligence for use on iPhones in China, removing one of the biggest regulatory hurdles that had delayed the launch since Apple first unveiled the AI platform in 2024.
China requires all large language models and generative AI services to obtain regulatory approval before they can be offered to the public.
Apple Intelligence and Samsung's Galaxy AI were the only foreign AI services approved in the latest batch.
Domestic smartphone makers Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE also received approvals, with ByteDance serving as ZTE's AI partner.
The approval follows months of discussions between Apple and Chinese authorities as geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing have intensified over artificial intelligence and advanced technology.
An Alibaba spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that the company's AI model would become part of Apple's ecosystem in China.
"Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences within iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for users in China," the spokesperson said.
According to Bloomberg, Qwen will enable capabilities including text generation, image generation, and image understanding across Apple's devices without requiring users to switch between separate applications.
"The Apple-Qwen integration gives users the ability to access the model's capabilities, like text and image understanding and generation, without needing to jump between tools," the Alibaba spokesperson added.
Alongside Alibaba, Apple is also collaborating with Baidu to develop AI features tailored for Chinese users.
A Baidu representative told the South China Morning Post that the company was working with Apple on Apple Intelligence features for the Chinese market.
Reuters also reported that Baidu would contribute to Apple's localized AI services.
The dual partnerships underscore Apple's strategy of working with domestic AI leaders to comply with China's regulatory framework while expanding Apple Intelligence outside Western markets.
The announcement comes amid growing competition between Chinese and US artificial intelligence companies.
Earlier this month, Alibaba prohibited employees from using Anthropic's AI models, while US lawmakers have been exploring ways to curb adoption of Chinese AI systems by American companies.
Separately, reports indicated that Meta had been forced to unwind its planned $2 billion acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus following intervention by Beijing.
The development also coincides with Apple's efforts to improve on-device AI capabilities.
CNBC reported on Tuesday that Apple is in discussions with Silicon Valley startup PrismML, which claims it can compress advanced AI models sufficiently to run directly on iPhones.
PrismML, a Caltech spinout backed by Khosla Ventures, recently released compressed versions of Alibaba's open-source Qwen model, reducing its size from roughly 54 GB to less than 4 GB, allowing the full 27-billion-parameter model to operate on an iPhone 15 or newer device.
Akcie Alibaba na burze v USA v úterý vyskočily téměř o 11 % po dočasném právním odkladu v USA a před zveřejněním výsledků. Její červnové výnosy mají podle Jefferies vzrůst o 9 % na zhruba RMB270 miliard.
Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA)'s US-listed shares jumped almost 11% on Tuesday, supported by a temporary legal reprieve in the United States and growing optimism ahead of the company's upcoming earnings report.
Investor sentiment improved after a US federal judge temporarily blocked restrictions tied to the Pentagon's designation of Alibaba under its Section 1260H list while the company's legal challenge proceeds, according to Bloomberg.
The order allows Alibaba to continue working with US lobbying firms during the court process, preserving its ability to engage with US policymakers on issues related to its cloud computing, e-commerce and capital markets businesses.
The legal challenge stems from the US Department of Defense's June decision to add Alibaba, along with several other Chinese companies, to its list of entities identified as having ties to China's military. The broader review of the designation remains ongoing.
Also supporting the stock was growing optimism ahead of Alibaba's June-quarter earnings, expected in late August or early September.
Jefferies expects Alibaba to deliver "strong execution despite macro headwinds," with combined EBITA from its China e-commerce and Alibaba International Digital Commerce businesses remaining roughly flat year over year.
The firm believes that weakness in industry gross merchandise value growth is already reflected in the stock price and reaffirmed Alibaba as its top pick on its artificial intelligence investment theme.
The analysts forecast total June-quarter revenue to increase 9% year over year to about RMB270 billion, in line with market consensus. They expect Cloud Intelligent Group revenue to grow 45% from a year earlier, above consensus estimates, driven by demand for artificial intelligence services and model-as-a-service offerings. Jefferies also expects cloud margins to improve sequentially and forecasts Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group will return to profit during the quarter.
The analysts wrote that stronger cloud performance and improving fundamentals in Alibaba's Quick Commerce business should help offset softer trends in China's broader online retail market, where industry online shopping gross merchandise value growth slowed during April and May.
Alibaba stáhla z platformy Qwen funkce AI společníků, protože Čína zpřísňuje pravidla pro AI služby, které působí lidsky. Akcie v Hongkongu ve stejném týdnu vyskočily o 12,2 %.
Key Takeaways Alibaba removed Qwen AI companion features as China prepares new rules for human-like AI services.BABA shares jumped 12.2% after signs of narrowing instant-commerce losses and steady profitability.Alibaba Cloud revenues rose 38% as AI product revenues logged triple-digit growth for an 11th quarter. Alibaba Group (BABA - Free Report) is pulling artificial intelligence (AI) companion features from its Qwen platform as Beijing prepares to enforce sweeping new rules on humanlike AI services, even as the stock stages its sharpest rally in months on unrelated signs of operational improvement. Qwen's humanlike and user-created agents stopped working on July 10, with wider agent services following five days later, aligning the shutdown with the July 15 rollout of China's first dedicated regulatory framework governing AI that simulates human personality.
The measure, co-issued on April 10, 2026, by the Cyberspace Administration of China and four other agencies, cites concerns including radicalization, data privacy, psychological harm and compulsive use. Compliance requires anti-addiction systems, mandatory usage notifications and real-time detection of unhealthy dependence — obligations that clash with agents built to remember users and sustain ongoing relationships. Unlike ByteDance, which offered a data-export window for its Doubao personas, Alibaba has not detailed a migration path for affected Qwen users.
The regulatory retreat came in the same week Alibaba shares jumped 12.2% in Hong Kong to HK$107.5, their largest single-session gain since September 2025. The move followed a pre-earnings briefing indicating losses in the company's instant-commerce business narrowed meaningfully in the June quarter while overall profitability held steady, reigniting investor confidence ahead of the August 28 earnings report. Sentiment was further supported by reports that Alibaba is consolidating three separate enterprise AI Agent tools — QoderWork, Wukong and MuleRun — into a single productivity platform led by DingTalk chief executive Chen Yusen, alongside reports of accelerating Alibaba Cloud revenue growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.
The developments follow a fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 report in which Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group posted revenues of 41.63 billion yuan ($6.04 billion), up 38% year over year, with AI-related product revenues extending triple-digit annual growth for an eleventh consecutive quarter and representing 30% of the cloud unit's external revenues. Group-wide, total revenues rose 3% to 243.38 billion yuan, while adjusted EBITA fell 84% amid heavy AI infrastructure and quick-commerce spending. Together, the two threads illustrate a company navigating tighter domestic rules on consumer-facing AI even as its cloud and enterprise AI ambitions draw renewed investor attention.
U.S. Peers Navigate Similar AI Investment CyclesAlibaba's heavy AI infrastructure spending mirrors trends at Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , both of which have posted comparable margin pressure from AI capital expenditure. Microsoft has continued expanding data-center capacity to support its cloud AI services, while Amazon has similarly scaled AI infrastructure investment across its cloud unit, each citing rising demand for AI-related workloads. Unlike Alibaba, neither Microsoft nor Amazon faces domestic regulatory restrictions on humanlike AI companion features, since such rules remain specific to China's market. Microsoft and Amazon shares have shown more muted single-session volatility than Alibaba's recent surge, reflecting differing investor sensitivity to regulatory versus earnings-driven catalysts.
BABA’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesBABA shares have plunged 33% in the year-to-date period, underperforming the Zacks Internet – Commerce industry and the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector’s decline 0.9% and 0.3%, respectively.
BABA’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, BABA stock is currently trading at a trailing 12-month Price/Earnings ratio of 31.06X compared with the sector’s 28.6X. BABA has a Value Score of D.
BABA’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at $6.86 per share, down 5.9% over the past 30 days, indicating a 76.35% year-over-year increase.
Alibaba currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Ark Invest Cathie Wood od poloviny května prodal téměř celý podíl v Alibaba, včetně jednorázového prodeje za 54 milionů USD koncem června. Akcie zůstávají pod tlakem kvůli ztrátě 848 milionů juanů a rostoucím politickým rizikům.
Since mid-May, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has liquidated almost all of its position in Alibaba Group (BABA +8.73%). That included a $54 million sale of the Chinese e-commerce and artificial intelligence (AI) stock in a single day in late June.
Wood, who is both the CEO and the public face of the company, has not publicly commented on this move, which some investors may treat as a sell signal in itself. Nonetheless, investors should probably look more closely at Alibaba's fundamentals and business environment before making such a decision on the consumer discretionary stock.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
A sudden reversal Alibaba stock has lost approximately half of its value since it reached its 52-week peak in October. At that time, Ark Invest owned around 99,000 shares of Alibaba.
As the stock began to correct in November, Wood increased her position in it. However, she began selling the stock aggressively at the beginning of June, and as of the time of this writing, she has sold nearly all of Ark Invest's Alibaba stock.
Today's Change
(
8.73
%) $
8.57
Current Price
$
106.71
The first round of bad news came from its May 13 earnings report. Its loss of 848 million yuan ($123 million) stood in stark contrast to the profit of 28.4 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) it reported in the prior-year quarter.
Moreover, free cash flow (FCF) continues to drop. In the quarter, its FCF was negative $2.5 billion, down from $544 million in FCF 12 months ago. Alibaba is engaging in heavy capital expenditures in its efforts to remain competitive in the AI space; that's likely the reason its free cash flow went negative.
If that were all the bad news, one might be able to discount it, based on the argument that Alibaba's high spending today will benefit the company in the long term. However, rising political tensions may have made the stock too risky to hold.
In May, it was reported that China had imposed travel restrictions on its AI professionals, sparking concern that it was isolating its AI sector and reducing collaboration. And the U.S. and Chinese governments remain at odds on AI hardware. In early June, the U.S. Defense Department listed Alibaba as a "Chinese military company," and not surprisingly, that designation has apparently impacted its stock.
Although Alibaba trades at a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of just 16, the combination of all of these factors has left many investors with the view that it's too risky to touch -- including, apparently, Cathie Wood and her team.
Is it time to sell Alibaba stock? Knowing Alibaba's situation, investors who don't have a huge tolerance for risk should probably sell the stock.
Admittedly, the 16 P/E ratio makes it a tempting option. If its AI investments eventually pay off and the Chinese and U.S. governments start to make moves that reassure investors, the stock price could surge. That by itself is a good argument for holding a speculative position.
Nonetheless, the two governments seem intent on imposing trade restrictions on each other, and that political risk alone could sink the Alibaba investment thesis, regardless of its financial metrics. Given the uncertainties around the company's business environment, it probably makes sense to follow Ark Invest's lead and avoid holding a large position in Alibaba stock.
Alibaba od 10. července zakáže zaměstnancům používat nástroje umělé inteligence od Anthropic pro pracovní účely a zařadí Claude Code mezi vysoce rizikový software. Místo toho mají používat vlastního asistenta Qoder.
Alibaba will ban employees from using Anthropic's artificial intelligence tools for work purposes as of July 10, citing concerns that the U.S. company has back-door security risks, CNBC confirmed on Monday.
The Chinese e-commerce giant has put Anthropic's Claude Code on a high-risk software list, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named in order to discuss internal operations.
Alibaba's move follows Anthropic's decision in June to send a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, blaming the Chinese tech titan of "brazenly" and "illicitly" attempting to extract its AI capabilities. Anthropic accused Alibaba of carrying out "the largest known distillation attack" on it to date.
Anthropic's terms of service dictate that Chinese companies and other "adversarial nations" are banned from using its models.
Alibaba employees are required to uninstall all Anthropic models and agent products and instead use the Chinese company's own AI assistant, Qoder, the people said.
Alibaba and Anthropic both declined to comment.
Read more CNBC tech newsMeta's push into cloud computing means Wall Street has to prepare for lower marginsChip stocks that notched record rallies in second quarter start Q3 with a dudPlayStation will end physical disc production for new games in 2028Employers who laid off workers citing AI are already starting to regret itThe ban comes amid a wave of online blowback in China against Anthropic as posts on Reddit and GitHub outlined the use of hidden code meant to detect if users might be based in the country.
The Financial Times reported Friday that Anthropic is moving to close loopholes that have allowed Chinese companies to bypass restrictions and access Claude through third countries.
The UK newspaper cited sources as saying Chinese fintech group Ant "had provided employees with corporate Claude accounts that were accessed through the company's intranet, which is connected to its Singapore-based entity."
The FT reported that TikTok parent company Bytedance "does not facilitate access to Claude," but did start a reimbursement program that allows engineers to expense personal subscriptions. The engineers can access those subscriptions on virtual private networks.
Ant and ByteDance declined to comment on the Financial Times report.
ByteDance's reimbursement policy, unveiled on April 2, is meant to encourage staffers to "experience and learn" about a wider range of AI products to enhance their skills, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The person asked not to be named in order to discuss internal policies.
Alibaba a dceřiná společnost Ant Group AUS Merchant Services zaplatí 600 milionů USD za vyrovnání obvinění amerického ministerstva spravedlnosti, že nezabránily nelegálním prodejům na platformách Alibaba.com a AliExpress.com. Dohoda zahrnuje i zpřísnění compliance programů.
Alibaba Group Holding and its U.S.-based payment processor, Ant Group subsidiary AUS Merchant Services, have agreed to pay $600 million to resolve U.S. Justice Department allegations that they failed to prevent illegal sales on Alibaba’s eCommerce platforms.
The Justice Department alleged that Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com failed to prevent merchants’ sales and imports of illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, listed chemicals and pill presses into the United States, thereby violating the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), the department said in a Wednesday (July 1) press release.
The payments are part of a non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, according to the release.
Reached by PYMNTS, an AUS Merchant Services spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to fully resolve this matter. We have made continuous improvements to our compliance program and will continue to do so to ensure compliance with laws and regulations in all markets where we operate.”
Alibaba Group Holding did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Alibaba said in an emailed statement that the settlement will bring “stricter compliance to the sale of products in the United States by third-party merchants on its eCommerce platforms.”
According to the Justice Department press release, Alibaba admitted that over a nearly nine-year period from January 2016 to December 2024, it maintained policies restricting the sale of prohibited products on its eCommerce platforms but failed to prevent merchants from selling prohibit products in 80,000 transactions involving imports to the U.S. that had a combined gross merchandise value of over $200 million.
Per the release, AUS admitted that over a nearly four-year period from January 2020 to December 2023, its transaction monitoring systems did not always identify transactions involving payments from high-risk jurisdictions or multiple payors on a single invoice, and its anti-money laundering compliance program failed to prevent some Alibaba merchants from using its services to facilitate the sale and importation of prohibited products.
As part of the non-prosecution agreement, Alibaba agreed to pay a criminal monetary penalty of $125 million and to forfeit $200 million, AUS agreed to pay a criminal monetary penalty of $85 million and to forfeit $190 million, and both companies agreed to enhance their compliance programs and to continue cooperating with the Justice Department.
“Companies operating online marketplaces — whether based in the United States or abroad — must implement appropriate safeguards to prevent bad actors from exploiting their platforms,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in the release. “If they fail to do so, the Department will hold them accountable.”
Alibaba zrychluje růst díky AI v e-commerce a quick commerce, jehož objednávky meziročně vzrostly 2,7×. Tržby China E-commerce Group stouply o 6 % na RMB 122 miliard.
Key Takeaways Alibaba is integrating AI across its consumer platforms to improve search, discovery and shopping experiences.BABA is investing in fulfillment efficiency and unit economics to improve the profitability of quick commerce.BABA's quick commerce orders rose 2.7 times year over year, boosting engagement across its retail ecosystem. Alibaba's (BABA - Free Report) digital commerce strategy is evolving into a more integrated, AI-enabled retail ecosystem that could support growth in fiscal 2027. Rather than relying solely on gross merchandise volume expansion, Alibaba is enhancing merchant productivity, consumer engagement and platform monetization across Taobao, Tmall and its instant commerce offerings. The company has also revamped its merchant development program by linking platform subsidies to merchants' marketing spend, an initiative aimed at improving advertising penetration and long-term monetization. These efforts are already gaining traction, with customer management revenue (CMR) increasing 8% year over year on a like-for-like basis in the March quarter, while China E-commerce Group revenues rose 6% to RMB 122 billion.
Quick commerce has become a strategic extension of Alibaba's broader retail platform rather than a standalone business. Order volume expanded 2.7 times year over year, supporting stronger growth at Freshippo and Tmall Supermarket while helping drive double-digit monthly active consumer additions for the Taobao app. At the same time, the integration of the Qwen app with Taobao, Tmall, Alipay, Amap and Fliggy is embedding AI-driven search, discovery and shopping assistance across Alibaba's consumer ecosystem, creating additional opportunities to improve user engagement and purchase frequency over time.
These investments have weighed on near-term profitability, with Alibaba China E-commerce Group's adjusted EBITA declining 40% year over year as spending on quick commerce, technology and user experience increased. However, improving fulfillment efficiency, higher average order values and stronger unit economics indicate that these investments are becoming more productive. If Alibaba continues translating higher consumer engagement into stronger merchant spending while improving the profitability of its quick commerce operations, its integrated digital commerce ecosystem could emerge as a meaningful catalyst for fiscal 2027 growth.
How Alibaba Stacks Up Against PDD and JD ?Alibaba faces intense competition from PDD Holdings (PDD - Free Report) and JD.com (JD - Free Report) , both of which continue to invest in strengthening their digital commerce ecosystems.
PDD Holdings has expanded its value-driven marketplace through AI-enabled merchant tools and Temu's international growth, while JD.com leverages its self-operated logistics network and omnichannel retail capabilities to enhance fulfillment speed and customer experience. Unlike PDD Holdings and JD.com, Alibaba operates a broader ecosystem spanning Taobao, Tmall, Taobao Instant Commerce, Ele.me, AliExpress and Alibaba.com, creating multiple consumer touchpoints across domestic and cross-border commerce. As PDD Holdings and JD.com intensify competition, Alibaba's AI-powered ecosystem, merchant monetization initiatives and integrated commerce platform could provide a differentiated long-term growth advantage.
BABA’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesBABA shares have plunged 34.8% in the year-to-date period, underperforming the Zacks Internet – Commerce industry and the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector, which have declined 6.6% and 1.9%, respectively.
BABA’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, BABA stock is currently trading at a trailing 12-month Price/Earnings ratio of 30.23X compared with the industry’s 28.31X. BABA has a Value Score of D.
BABA’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at $7.29 per share, down by a penny over the past 30 days, indicating a 87.4% year-over-year increase.
Alibaba currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Anthropic obvinila Alibaba, že se „nehorázně“ a „nezákonně“ snažila získat její schopnosti v oblasti AI. Firma tvrdí, že šlo o dosud největší známý distilační útok.
Anthropic sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs accusing the Chinese tech company Alibaba of "brazenly" and "illicitly" attempting to extract its artificial intelligence capabilities, CNBC confirmed on Wednesday.
The letter, which was addressed to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on June 10, said Alibaba carried out "the largest known distillation attack on Anthropic to date."
Distillation is an AI training method where a small, less capable model is built using outputs from an existing, stronger model.
Anthropic said operators affiliated with Alibaba and its AI lab carried out 28.8 million exchanges with its models using roughly 25,000 fraudulent accounts between April 22 and June 5, according to the letter, which was viewed by CNBC.
"We believe combating the threat of illicit distillation requires coordinated action between government and industry, and we will continue working with Congress and the Administration to maintain American AI leadership," an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement.
A representative for Alibaba did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Bloomberg was first to report the letter.
Read more CNBC tech newsAmazon's Zoox unveils redesigned robotaxi ahead of upcoming expansionOpenAI unveils first chip as part of Broadcom deal in effort to 'build the full stack'South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix plans to raise $29 billion via Nasdaq listing as soon as July 10Alphabet added to Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing VerizonThe letter lands two months after the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a memorandum that pledged to help AI companies detect and coordinate against industrial-scale distillation. Anthropic wrote that in proceeding with its distillation attacks, Alibaba "ignored the Trump Administration's warnings."
In February, Anthropic announced that it had identified three "industrial-scale" distillation campaigns from three other AI labs: DeepSeek, Moonshot and MiniMax. The company said in a blog post at the time that the campaigns were growing in intensity and sophistication, and it encouraged collaboration across the AI industry, cloud providers and policymakers.
But in recent weeks, Anthropic's work with policymakers has been complicated.
The company said earlier this month that it received an export control directive from the Trump administration ordering the company to suspend access to its latest Claude models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, "by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees."
The government cited "national security authorities" but didn't specify its concern, Anthropic said.
Senior staffers flew to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of the Trump administration over the next several days. The company told CNBC that "both parties are working quickly to get this resolved," but hasn't yet said when it expects its models to come back online.
Alibaba spustila Qwen-Robot Suite a posouvá AI do robotiky. Cloudová divize zvýšila tržby o 40 %, ale silné výdaje srazily upravenou EBITA o 84 % a volný peněžní tok se dostal do záporu ve výši 17,3 miliardy RMB.
Key Takeaways BABA launched Qwen-Robot Suite, advancing its push into AI-driven embodied robotics.BABA cloud unit saw 40% revenue growth, with AI products posting 11th straight quarter of triple-digit gains.BABA faces profit pressure as heavy AI spending drives EBITA down and free cash flow turns negative. Alibaba Group (BABA - Free Report) shares have come under renewed pressure, slipping toward the $110 mark in mid-June trading and pulling back roughly 24.3% on a year-to-date basis even as the company doubles down on artificial intelligence and embodied robotics as its next growth frontier. BABA shares have underperformed the Zacks Internet – Commerce industry and the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector year to date.
The stock's recent slide has coincided with a stretch of mixed headlines, from added regulatory scrutiny in China to geopolitical friction abroad, even as Alibaba's underlying AI and cloud narrative has continued to strengthen.
BABA Underperforms Industry, Sector YTD
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Qwen-Robot Launch Builds on AI-Led Cloud MomentumThe latest catalyst is the launch of the Qwen-Robot Suite, a set of three foundation models, Qwen-RobotNav, Qwen-RobotManip and Qwen-RobotWorld, developed by Alibaba's Tongyi Lab to give machines navigation, manipulation and predictive world-modeling capabilities. According to the company's own product communications, the suite is already in pilot testing with select Alibaba Cloud enterprise clients, marking a tangible step from research into commercial deployment.
This robotics push builds directly on the AI commercialization trend disclosed in Alibaba's fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results, where Cloud Intelligence Group external revenue growth accelerated to 40% year over year, and AI-related product revenues posted triple-digit growth for an 11th consecutive quarter, reaching roughly RMB8,971 million in the quarter. Management noted that its Qwen3.6-Plus model delivered notable gains in coding and agentic programming, while the company's Model Studio platform saw its customer base expand eightfold year over year, underscoring how the same full-stack AI infrastructure now extends into physical-world applications like robotics.
Importantly, the fiscal fourth-quarter results came with a profitability trade-off. Adjusted EBITA fell 84% year over year to RMB5,102 million as Alibaba funneled spending into cloud infrastructure, quick commerce and Qwen app user acquisition, while free cash flow swung to an outflow of RMB17,300 million.
For fiscal 2027, management guided that AI-related product revenues are expected to cross 50% of Cloud Intelligence Group's external revenues within roughly a year, model and application services annualized recurring revenues should surpass RMB10 billion in the June quarter and RMB30 billion by year-end, and that quick commerce unit economics are expected to turn positive by the end of fiscal 2027. Alibaba Cloud's gross margin is also expected to improve meaningfully over the next two to three years as AI-related workloads scale.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at $7.38 per share, down 4.3% over 60 days despite implied 89.72% growth.
More recent company disclosures have reinforced this AI-first trajectory. In its product communications, Alibaba indicated that the Qwen-Robot models are designed to close the gap between language-based reasoning and physical control, while T-Head, its chip-design unit, has now deployed over 100,000 proprietary Zhenwu processing units on Alibaba Cloud's public platform, with more than 30 automakers and autonomous-driving companies using them for intelligent-driving development. The board also approved a fiscal 2026 annual dividend of $1.05 per ADS, signaling continued shareholder returns even amid heavy AI capital outlay.
Valuation and Competitive LandscapeBABA trades at a 2-year trailing 12-month P/E of 35.12X versus the Zacks Internet–Commerce industry's 29.96X, and carries a Value Score of C, reflecting a premium multiple relative to peers.
BABA’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Alibaba Cloud continues battling Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) -owned Google in AI infrastructure. Amazon's AWS remains the largest cloud provider, expanding its Connect family of AI-driven business applications. Microsoft Azure has pushed deeper AI integration through Copilot Studio and expanded agent ecosystems, growing its global traffic share meaningfully. Google Cloud has gained share through Gemini Enterprise, its TPU-based stack and an Agentic Data Cloud, with Pichai citing 40% sequential growth in paid Gemini Enterprise users. Against Amazon, Microsoft and Google's scale, Alibaba's robotics and Qwen ambitions remain comparatively nascent.
Hold Steady, Watch for a Better EntryAlibaba's robotics ambitions and accelerating AI-cloud momentum present genuine long-term catalysts, but near-term profitability pressure, regulatory headwinds and a premium valuation warrant caution. Investors may prefer holding existing positions while watching for a more attractive entry point rather than chasing shares amid current volatility. Alibaba currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Alibaba žaluje americké ministerstvo obrany a chce být vyškrtnuta ze seznamu firem údajně podporujících čínskou armádu. Tvrdí, že označení nemá oporu ve faktech ani v právu.
Alibaba Group sued the U.S. Department of Defense Tuesday (June 23), seeking to be removed from a list of companies the Department says are supporters of the Chinese military.
The Department published the list earlier this month, and Alibaba argues in its lawsuit that the designation violates the company’s rights to constitutional due process and free speech, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Alibaba said it is neither a Chinese military company nor a military-civil fusion, and the company said that the Defense Department did not reply to evidence the company presented showing that it is not a supporter of the Chinese military, according to the report.
A company’s inclusion on the Defense Department’s list can restrict its ability to contract with the U.S. military, can limit its ability to receive research funding, and can signal more punitive trade restrictions in the future, the report said.
Alibaba got its start as an eCommerce company but has since become one of the leading artificial intelligence companies in China, per the report.
Reuters also reported on the lawsuit Tuesday and said that on June 8, the Department of Defense expanded its list of businesses linked to China’s military to include 188 entities.
Alibaba said, per the report: “The determinations have no basis in fact or law. Alibaba is governed by an independent board, none of whom has any military affiliation. Its products and services are built for retail, logistics, and enterprise information technology — not weapons, defense, or intelligence.”
The Defense Department said in a June 8 press release that it identified the 188 companies included on the list after conducting its due diligence.
“The Department will update the list with additional entities as appropriate,” it said. “The United States Government reserves the right to take additional actions on these entities under authorities other than Section 1260H.”
Section 1260H is the statutory requirement of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 under which the Department updated the list.
In the list, the Department of Defense said Alibaba Group is indirectly affiliated with China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) and is affiliated with the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), making the company a military-civil fusion contributor to China’s defense industrial base.
