China’s Alibaba reports 38% jump in AI and cloud revenue as it races to grow
China’s Alibaba reports 38% jump in AI and cloud revenue as it races to grow
Publish Date: 2026-05-13 10:09:00
Source Domain: wtop.com
- Alibaba’s artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing businesses experienced accelerated growth in the latest quarter despite only a 3% rise in overall revenue to 243 billion yuan ($36 billion).
- The Cloud Intelligence Group’s revenue surged by 38% in the January-March period compared to the same quarter last year, showing a better growth rate than the previous two quarters.
- Although profitable revenue growth in these sectors accelerated, Alibaba incurred an operational loss of 848 million yuan ($125 million) due to rising technological investment.
- The company’s technological investments are part of an extensive plan to build AI and cloud infrastructure, aiming to meet the burgeoning demand for AI.
- Alibaba has recently integrated its Qwen AI app with its e-commerce platform Taobao and launched the Wukong “agentic” AI tool, seeking to drive commercial demand.
- CEO Eddie Wu stated that Alibaba’s AI efforts are entering a commercialization phase.
- Alibaba’s AI and cloud investments aim to surpass $100 billion in annual revenue in the next five years.
- Competitor Tencent also reported weaker-than-expected revenue despite a 21% net profit increase, while analysts suggest its AI investments are beginning to yield returns.
- Chinese AI companies are likely to maintain high capital expenditures as they transition from user acquisition to monetization.
