Alibaba Shares Rise on Robust Cloud Revenue Growth

(Seoul=Yonhap Infomax) Jung Won Yoon – Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) advanced as the Chinese tech giant reported solid growth in its cloud computing revenue.

As of 07:08 a.m. local time on the 25th, Alibaba’s shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange were trading at $167.88 in pre-market activity, up 4.45% from the previous session, according to Yonhap Infomax’s real-time stock data (screen number 7219).

Alibaba announced its fiscal second-quarter results, reporting revenue of 247.8 billion yuan ($35.1 billion) for the period.

This marks a 5% increase from 242.65 billion yuan in the same period last year.

Cloud computing revenue, closely tied to artificial intelligence (AI) services, surged 34% year-on-year to 39.8 billion yuan, exceeding both the previous quarter’s 26% growth and market expectations of 37.9 billion yuan.

Operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITA) for the cloud segment climbed 35% to 3.6 billion yuan.

Alibaba stated that its investments in AI are bolstering the performance of its cloud business.

“Robust AI demand has accelerated the growth of our Cloud Intelligence Group, driving a 34% increase in revenue,” said Eddie Wu, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba. “AI-related product revenue has posted triple-digit year-on-year growth for nine consecutive quarters.”

Meanwhile, Alibaba is emerging as one of China’s leading AI companies.

Qwen, Alibaba’s proprietary AI model, surpassed 10 million downloads in its first official week of release.

jwyoon2@yna.co.kr

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