Alibaba Shares Jump After CEO Reveals Plans to Raise AI Spending

(Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s shares surged to their highest in almost four years after it announced plans to ramp up spending on AI infrastructure to better compete with US rivals.

The company sees global investment in artificial intelligence accelerating rapidly, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu told a developer conference in Hangzhou. To keep up, Alibaba will soon add to its February plan to spend more than 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) on developing AI models and infrastructure over three years.

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“The industry’s development speed far exceeded what we expected, and the industry’s demand for AI infrastructure also far exceeded our anticipation,“ Wu said. “We are actively proceeding with the 380 billion investment in AI infrastructure, and plan to add more.” Shares rose as much as 7.2% in Hong Kong.

Alongside the presentation, Alibaba also officially unveiled its new Qwen3-Max large language model and a series of other improvements to its suite of AI offerings. Wu said the company, still best known as China’s e-commerce pioneer, is looking to become a “full-stack AI service provider.” That includes selling AI products like model-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service to suit various needs.

Refocusing the business around artificial intelligence has started bearing fruit for Wu and Alibaba. In the most recent quarter, the Hangzhou-based company reported triple-digit growth in its AI-related products. Its Cloud Intelligence division also posted a better-than-expected 26% jump in sales, making it the group’s fastest-growing business unit. Investors have cheered these results and initiatives, sending the company’s stock to more than double its price over the course of this year.

(Updates with further details from event)

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