Alibaba to Spend More Than $52 Billion in AI, Cloud Over Next Three Years

Published: 2025-02-24 02:44:11 ET BABA

By Tracy Qu

Alibaba Group plans to invest more than $52 billion on AI and cloud infrastructure over the next three years, in a bid to seize more opportunities in the artificial-intelligence era.

The spending of at least 380 billion yuan, equivalent to $52.41 billion, will surpass the company's AI and cloud computing investment over the past decade, Alibaba said in a post Monday on its news site.

Alibaba first mentioned the plan last week when the company reported its results but didn't provide a specific figure.

The technology giant co-founded by Jack Ma delivered better-than-expected results for three months ended December, with revenue growth accelerating to its fastest pace since late 2023, supported by improvements in its e-commerce and cloud businesses.

Major Chinese tech companies, from Alibaba to Baidu, have been ramping up efforts to spur AI business growth as advancements by homegrown upstart DeepSeek have gained global attention. Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai earlier this month said its AI technology would be integrated into Apple's iPhones for the Chinese market, a move that analysts expect to burnish the Hangzhou-based company's brand image and benefit its long-term growth. Last month, Alibaba introduced the Qwen2.5 Max, the latest version of its AI model, which it said was competitive with global leaders, including DeepSeek-V3.

Alibaba's pledged AI and cloud investment exceeded the forecast of Citi analysts, who projected spending of 350 billion yuan from the fiscal fourth quarter of 2025 through the end of fiscal 2028.

"We believe Alibaba is well-positioned to capture the influx demand of cloud computing services in the coming years," they said in a commentary.

Write to Tracy Qu at [email protected]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-24-25 0244ET