Alibaba shares rallied strongly in both Hong Kong and U.S. premarket trading on Wednesday after the Chinese tech giant announced new plans to boost artificial intelligence (AI) investment and rolled out its latest generation of AI products.
In Hong Kong, Alibaba’s stock jumped more than 6%, reaching its highest level since 2021. Year-to-date gains have now surpassed 107%, highlighting investor confidence in the company’s strategic pivot toward AI.
On Wall Street, Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares rose 9.3% in premarket trade as of 4:21 a.m. ET, extending the wave of optimism across global markets.
At Alibaba Cloud’s annual technology conference, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu revealed that the company will increase spending on AI models and infrastructure, in addition to the 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) already committed over three years since February 2025.
“We are vigorously advancing a three-year, 380 billion yuan AI infrastructure initiative with plans to sustain and further increase our investment according to our strategic vision in anticipation of the artificial superintelligence era,” Wu said.
Artificial superintelligence refers to a theoretical form of AI that surpasses the power and intelligence of the human brain — a concept that has become a focal point for leading AI companies worldwide.
At the event, Alibaba officially launched the latest version of its Qwen large language models — Qwen3-Max — alongside a series of updates across its AI product suite.
Wu emphasized that Alibaba Cloud is positioning itself as a “full-stack AI service provider,” capable of delivering the computing power required for training and deploying large-scale AI models through its own data centers.
“The cumulative investment in global AI over the next five years will exceed $4 trillion. This represents the largest commitment in history to computing power and research and development,” he added.
To support its AI ambitions, Alibaba Cloud announced it will open its first data centers in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands, while also expanding to Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Dubai in the coming year.
This global expansion aims to strengthen the company’s presence in international cloud markets, positioning it to compete more aggressively with established rivals such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Last month, Alibaba secured a partnership with Unicom, a major Chinese e-commerce group, to deploy Alibaba’s AI accelerators from its semiconductor division.
The move underscores a broader push among Chinese technology firms to achieve chip self-sufficiency amid escalating U.S.–China tensions over semiconductor supply chains. By developing in-house AI chips, Alibaba hopes to reduce reliance on foreign technology while reinforcing its competitive edge in the global AI race.
Analysts view Alibaba’s aggressive AI investment strategy as both a growth catalyst and a calculated risk. On the one hand, the company is positioning itself at the forefront of one of the most transformative industries of the next decade. The explosive potential of AI — from cloud computing to enterprise solutions — could deliver long-term revenue growth and elevate Alibaba’s standing among the world’s top tech players.
On the other hand, the sheer scale of the investment — tens of billions of dollars — poses financial risks in the short term. Investors will be watching closely to see whether Alibaba can balance innovation with profitability, particularly as global competition intensifies and regulatory pressures mount.
Nevertheless, the sharp rise in Alibaba’s share price reflects growing market confidence. With AI expected to reshape industries from e-commerce to healthcare, Alibaba’s early and large-scale commitment could prove to be a decisive advantage.
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