Alibaba's shares listed in Hong Kong surged by 14.56 percent on Friday, buoyed by better-than-expected quarterly earnings and a commitment from management to make aggressive investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing over the next three years.
The company's earnings report revealed an 8 percent increase in revenue, reaching 280 billion yuan ($38.6 billion) for the quarter ending December 2024. This marks Alibaba's fastest revenue growth in over a year.
During Thursday's earnings call, Chief Executive Eddie Wu announced that Alibaba plans to allocate more funds to AI and cloud infrastructure in the next three years than it has invested in the past decade combined. While Wu did not specify the exact investment amount, the company's capital investment for the nine months ending December 31 stood at 61.4 billion yuan.
Alibaba also reported a 13 percent increase in cloud-related product revenues and triple-digit growth in AI-related products for the October-December quarter of 2024. According to company filings, AI-related products have maintained triple-digit revenue growth for six consecutive quarters, highlighting the sustained demand and strategic importance of AI in Alibaba's growth trajectory.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
