Alibaba Group has highlighted that it has been focusing more on these two sectors lately, with plans to integrate artificial intelligence across several of its divisions such as e-commerce and consumer applications.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has revealed it is investing $53 billion (€50.6bn) into cloud computing and artificial intelligence over the next three years. This would be one of the company's biggest tech investments so far, surpassing its investments in these sectors in the past 10 years.
The move comes as Alibaba, along with several Chinese technology companies, have been seeing increased gains following robust earnings and a rebound in investor confidence.
Alibaba's share price was down 2% on Monday morning.
Hopes of more Chinese government support
The decision comes after a meeting between the Chinese president Xi Jinping and Alibaba's co-founder Jack Ma, which has renewed investor hopes of the Chinese government providing more support to the tech sector.
ddie Wu, the company's chief executive officer (CEO), also emphasised that Alibaba has been focusing more on artificial intelligence lately, which has also propelled its current growth. He has also highlighted AI's potential to mimic human physical and intellectual labour, which could go a long way towards reinvigorating industries across the world.
Significant cloud infrastructure is also expected to be needed to distribute and process large amounts of AI-generated data.
The company has also shared its intention to integrate AI across its various divisions, such as enterprise and consumer applications, as well as e-commerce, in an attempt to improve customer experience, boost growth and make operations more efficient.
Other major Chinese companies, such as ByteDance, which owns TikTok, have also been investing more in artificial intelligence lately, through increasing their capital expenditure budgets. This comes as China increases efforts to strengthen its position in the global artificial intelligence race.
This is often done by sidestepping potential Western regulations and restrictions, through the use of open-source technologies. The method also supports Chinese companies in coming up with AI solutions much more quickly and cheaply than many of their Western counterparts.
Companies such as Apple will also be able to use Alibaba's cloud infrastructure to provide advanced AI options to its Chinese consumer base, while still being in line with local regulations. This could go towards helping foreign tech giants navigate the complicated Chinese AI market, which could also further solidify Alibaba's position in the sector.
Euronews has contacted Alibaba for comment.
Alibaba announces results for fourth quarter 2024
Alibaba released its fourth quarter 2024 results, with the company seeing a revenue of RMB 280,154 million (€36,907.4m), which was a rise of 8% on an annual basis. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders came up to RMB 48,945m (€6,448m).
Wu said in a press release on the company's website: "This quarter's results demonstrated substantial progress in our 'user first, AI-driven' strategies and the reaccelerated growth of our core businesses. During this quarter, customer management revenue at Taobao and Tmall Group grew 9% as a result of initiatives to enhance user experience and effective monetization.
"Our Cloud revenue growth reignited to double digits at 13%, with AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit growth for the sixth consecutive quarter. Looking ahead, revenue growth at Cloud Intelligence Group driven by AI will continue to accelerate. We will continue to execute against our strategic priorities in e-commerce and cloud computing, including further investment to drive long-term growth."