China’s Alibaba to invest $50b in AI, cloud computing

Chinese tech giant Alibaba said Monday it will spend more than $50 billion on artificial intelligence and cloud computing over the next three years, a week after co-founder Jack Ma was seen meeting with President Xi Jinping.

Alibaba plans to “invest at least 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over the next three years to advance its cloud computing and AI infrastructure”, a company statement said.

Investors have piled into Chinese technology stocks since the start of the year, with Alibaba — which runs some of the country’s biggest online shopping platforms — seeing its shares soar to three-year highs.

The gains have been boosted since the Hangzhou-based firm announced robust sales growth last week and after Ma was pictured with Xi following years out of the public eye.

Alibaba said Monday that its strategy was aimed at “reinforcing (Alibaba’s) commitment to long-term technological innovation… (and) underscores the company’s focus on AI-driven growth”.

The statement did not detail how the company would allocate the funds or what specific projects would be supported.

It did add that the investment would exceed its total AI and cloud spending over the past decade.