Alibaba Pledges $52 Billion for AI and Cloud Expansion

Image Credit: Reuters

Alibaba announced on Monday that it plans to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($52.44 billion) in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next three years.

While the company had mentioned its intentions to invest in this sector during its earnings announcement on Friday, it did not specify an exact amount at that time. For the three months ending December 31, Alibaba reported revenue of 280.15 billion yuan, slightly surpassing analysts' expectations.

The company stated that this new investment will surpass its total spending on AI and cloud computing in the past decade.

With this announcement, Alibaba has positioned itself as a leader in China's AI race, attracting investors with strategic business moves. Its stock has surged more than 68% this year, as of the last close.

Other Chinese companies are also making significant investments in AI. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has reportedly allocated over 150 billion yuan in capital expenditure this year, a large portion of which will be focused on AI, according to sources close to the matter. 

($1 = 7.2470 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Paraphrasing text from "Reuters" all rights reserved by the original author