Is Alibaba Cloud's Growing Partner Base a Catalyst for Future Returns?
BABA is not slowing down and expanding its AI footprint rapidly. It recently formed a strategic partnership with smartphone maker HONOR, which marked the first time for Alibaba's proprietary AI agents to be directly integrated into mobile devices. The company's first hybrid reasoning family Qwen3 is gaining rapid traction, with companies, such as NVIDIA, AMD and MediaTek deploying Qwen3 on their frameworks.
Alibaba also announced that it will invest more than $60 million in the next fiscal year to strengthen its partner ecosystem and accelerate AI innovation. The investment is underscored by new and expanded partnerships with leading technology providers worldwide. They include Dify, Squirro, PingCAP, Atos, Crayon, DXC Technology, Bespin Global Indonesia and Electrum Cloud. The investment will go toward collaborative marketing campaigns, incentive rebate programs and other activities to benefit both Alibaba Cloud and its partners. This move comes at a time when Alibaba Cloud hopes to gain more exposure overseas.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group generated RMB 30.1 billion ($4.15 billion) in revenues, up 18% year over year, contributing around 12.7% of total revenues. This was driven by the increasing adoption of AI-related products. As Alibaba Cloud strengthens its global partner ecosystem, the efforts are expected to drive higher cloud adoption and AI service consumption, paving the way for sustained revenue growth in the coming quarters.
Alibaba Cloud Faces Stiff Competition From Tech Giants
Alibaba Cloud is under pressure to get ahead in the AI race, with companies like Amazon AMZN and Microsoft MSFT forming partnerships with tech behemoths to hold their lead.
Amazon's AWS and Meta Platforms recently teamed up to support AI startups by making Meta's Llama 3 models more accessible through AWS services, aiming to accelerate AI innovation and adoption across industries. Amazon also announced a partnership with HUMAIN to invest $5 billion-plus to accelerate AI innovation in Saudi Arabia and globally.
Microsoft and Pearson have announced a multiyear partnership to integrate Microsoft Azure OpenAI technologies into Pearson's education products, aiming to transform learning and workforce readiness through AI. Microsoft has also strengthened its partnership with the Kuwait government by announcing plans to establish an AI-powered Azure cloud region.
BABA's Share Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
BABA shares have gained 41.9% in the year-to-date (YTD) period, outperforming the Zacks Internet – Commerce industry and the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector's growth of 10.5% and 5.8%, respectively.
BABA's YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, BABA stock is currently trading at a forward 12-month Price/Earnings ratio of 13.07X compared with the industry's 26.17X. BABA has a Value Score of C.
BABA Valuation
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $2.13 per share, which has been revised downward by 14.1% over the past 30 days, indicating a 5.75% year-over-year decline.
Alibaba currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Zacks' Research Chief Names "Stock Most Likely to Double"
Our team of experts has just released the 5 stocks with the greatest probability of gaining +100% or more in the coming months. Of those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian highlights the one stock set to climb highest.
This top pick is a little-known satellite-based communications firm. Space is projected to become a trillion dollar industry, and this company's customer base is growing fast. Analysts have forecasted a major revenue breakout in 2025. Of course, all our elite picks aren't winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks' Stocks Set to Double like Hims & Hers Health, which shot up +209%.
Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners Up
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA): Free Stock Analysis Report
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
16 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Can Buying $10,000 of Nvidia Stock Still Make You a Millionaire?
Key Points Nvidia would have to grow to nearly 4x last year's global GDP to turn $10,000 into $1 million. Achieving this goal is theoretically possible, but highly improbable. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › If you had invested $10,000 in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) on the day of its initial public offering in 1999 and never sold, you'd have a whopping $42.4 million today. Even if you had waited until 2015 to buy $10,000 of the stock and held on for the wild ride, your investment would be worth roughly $3.58 million now. But, as the old saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. Can buying $10,000 of Nvidia stock still make you a millionaire? Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » What it would take Let's first address what it would take for a $10,000 investment in Nvidia to make you a millionaire. The math is simple: Since $1 million divided by $10,000 is 100, Nvidia would need to deliver a 100x gain. Most stocks aren't able to produce that kind of return, even over a lifetime. However, Nvidia has done it in less than nine years. Admittedly, it's hard to envision Nvidia doing it again. After all, the GPU maker now sports a market cap of over $4.2 trillion -- the highest valuation for any company ever. To turn $10,000 into $1 million, Nvidia's market cap would have to grow to a mind-blowing $420 trillion. To put that figure into perspective, the U.S. GDP last year was roughly $29.2 trillion. The GDP for the entire world was around $110.5 trillion. All Nvidia would have to do to make you a millionaire with a $10,000 investment is to grow to 3.8 times the economic output of every country on the planet. Easy, peasy, right? Potential scenarios It's hard to envision how Nvidia could grow 100x. However, I can come up with two potential scenarios where it could at least theoretically happen. The first scenario involves Nvidia achieving a revolutionary breakthrough that gives it a monopoly on technology that everyone wants. Maybe the company builds a teleportation device that allows people and products to be instantly transported anywhere. Perhaps a more likely goal would be to create AI superintelligence, an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system that's smarter than any human who has ever lived. Nvidia has teamed up with partners, including Turing, who are trying to develop AGI systems. The company's GEAR group (GEAR stands for "generalist embodied agent research") is trying to build foundation models, agents, and robots that might eventually achieve AGI. The second scenario requires time and consistently strong earnings growth. Nvidia's earnings jumped 31% year over year in the first quarter of 2025. Stock prices tend to track earnings growth over the long term. If we assume that Nvidia continues to grow by 31% for the next 17 or so years, its share price would increase by 100x. However, to deliver such stellar growth over such a long period, Nvidia might need a game-changing breakthrough mentioned in the first scenario. Facing long odds Is it possible that buying $10,000 of Nvidia stock right now could make you a millionaire? Sure. Is it probable? No way. The odds against Nvidia delivering a 100x gain are enormous. Of course, that's true for pretty much any other stock. However, I suspect that Nvidia could still make investors millionaires. It'll just take more money and potentially a long time. If you want $10,000 to turn into $1 million, though, you might have to find a smaller stock with tremendous growth prospects -- in other words, another Nvidia of 10 to 20 years ago. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025
Globe and Mail
4 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
The Most Important Thing for Apple Stock (AAPL) Investors to Watch in 2025
Key Points Apple is facing stronger competition from Chinese smartphone makers. The company's revenue and earnings have flattened since 2023. 10 stocks we like better than Apple › Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) used to be the most valuable company in the world. It used to be the undisputed bellwether of technology stocks. It used to be the dominant smartphone maker in the all-important China market. And it used to be the one name that you could count on to deliver outsize returns for your investment portfolio. None of that is true any longer. And while Apple is still one of the "Magnificent Seven" stocks and has a market capitalization of $3.2 trillion, it's not the growth driver of recent years. Apple is down 14% so far in 2025, far below the greater market. Among its Magnificent Seven peers, only Tesla is having a worse year. AAPL data by YCharts What will it take for Apple to turn things around? The stock is up 6% in the last month, giving investors some hope for the second half of 2025. Apple shareholders should be deeply concerned about Apple's falling market share in China, and that's the most important metric I'm watching for the rest of 2025, as it's critical to Apple's largest revenue stream and a market where Apple is showing vulnerability. Though it's not the only area of concern. Chinese smartphones are becoming a problem for Apple Apple entered the Chinese smartphone market in 2010 and gradually increased its market share, topping $70 billion a year in 2022 and 2023. Apple had a huge advantage in China as U.S. sanctions restricted a Chinese competitor, Huawei, from American technology, and Apple's smartphones were the most advanced in the market. But that began to change in the second half of 2023 as Huawei launched new 5G phones with locally made chips, much to the surprise of even analysts who cover the industry. There are also national subsidy programs in China that make smartphones more affordable, but they are only for phones priced below 6,000 renminbi ($838), which is below Apple's price point. Apple's market share in China fell from 21% in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 15% in the first quarter of 2025, while both Huawei and Xiaomi have market shares of 19%, according to Counterpoint Research. That trend continued into the second quarter, as Apple sales in Greater China dropped 2% on a year-over-year basis, even as sales in other geographic areas rose. Region Fiscal Q2 2025 Sales (ending March 29, 2025) Fiscal Q2 2024 Sales (ending March 30, 2024) Percent gain (loss) Americas $40.3 billion $37.8 billion 8% Europe $24.4 billion $21.1 billion 1% Greater China $16 billion $16.4 billion (2%) Japan $7.3 billion $6.2 billion 17% Other Asia-Pacific $7.3 billion $6.7 billion 8% Totals $95.3 billion $90.7 billion 5% Data source: Apple. So, Apple's weakness in China is having a significant impact on the company's revenue growth. Apple is profitable, but growth is weak Apple was a popular growth stock when the company was, well, growing. But its revenue and earnings growth has flatlined since 2023. AAPL Revenue (Annual) data by YCharts The company is still getting strong revenue growth from its lucrative Services segment, which includes the App store, Apple Music, its iCloud services, Apple Pay and Apple Card. Segment Fiscal Q2 2025 (ending March 29, 2025) Fiscal Q2 2024 (ending March 30, 2024) Percent gain (loss) iPhone $48.84 billion $45.96 billion 6.2% Mac $7.94 billion $7.45 billion 6.6% iPad $6.4 billion $5.55 billion 15.3% Wearables, Home, and Accessories $7.52 billion $7.91 billion (4.9%) Services $26.64 billion $23.86 billion 11.6% Totals $95.3 billion $90.7 billion 5% Data source: Apple. The Services segment is one of the best things about investing in Apple because the company doesn't have to invest the same type of research and development into Services as it does in creating new advancements to the iPhone. Companies that want to post a new application in the App Store of make music available through Apple simply pay it a cut. Apple's iPhone releases used to be closely watched because the company, in its heyday, made some revolutionary changes to smartphones. Things like the introduction to the App store, the launch of the Siri assistant, touchscreens, forward- and rear-facing cameras, and facial recognition encouraged people to trade in their iPhones for the latest model. But today's iPhones don't have the same kind of technological advancement, so people seem much more willing to hold on to iPhones for a longer period of time. Considering that Apple makes the lion's share of its money on iPhone sales, that is a problem. Tariffs are a huge concern Apple makes most of its products in China, which is locked in a trade war with the United States that doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. In fact, President Donald Trump has threatened Apple with a 25% tariff if the company doesn't move its iPhone production to the U.S. Apple is in the process of moving some of its production to Vietnam and India, but that's a long process and it doesn't shield Apple from the bulk of the tariff threat. Apple is vulnerable on both ends of the trade war. In China, it's penalized for being a U.S. company and is battling for market share against companies that are making lower-cost products and taking advantage of government subsidies. In the U.S., its facing the specter of higher manufacturing and shipping costs, both which would either cut into the company's profit margins or force it to pass on costs to customers. Looking ahead for the rest of 2025 Apple reports its fiscal third-quarter earnings on July 31. Investors should be watching if sales in Greater China continue to decline and how that affects Apple's overall revenue and income growth. Apple won't be losing money -- it still churns out profits and a small dividend like clockwork -- but it's no longer the growth giant that it was in the past despite trading at nearly 28 times forward earnings. Until Apple solves its China problem or creates a new source of revenue, investors shouldn't expect the stock to outperform the market. Should you invest $1,000 in Apple right now? Before you buy stock in Apple, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Apple wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025
Globe and Mail
4 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Imagen Network (IMAGE) Rolls Out XRP Infrastructure to Strengthen Scalable Social Curation
Advanced tooling uses Ripple's XRP architecture to build transparent, AI-led content systems for Web3 creators and communities. Singapore, Singapore--(Newsfile Corp. - July 28, 2025) - Imagen Network (IMAGE), the decentralized social platform leveraging AI and blockchain, has deployed a new infrastructure layer built on Ripple's XRP framework to boost content visibility and streamline social engagement curation. This upgrade allows creators and users to interact across scalable systems with greater transparency, efficiency, and fairness. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: The XRP-backed layer helps accelerate data routing, payment coordination, and tokenized discovery across Imagen's multichain environment. With this rollout, the platform's intelligent content filters and moderation tools can operate faster and more reliably—empowering communities to govern their feeds, reward creativity, and maintain quality signals. This architecture is designed to support the growing demand for real-time, bias-free content experiences. XRP's high throughput and low-cost settlement mechanisms also enhance how users exchange value and feedback without relying on centralized intermediaries. The new system underscores Imagen's mission to build social infrastructure that amplifies human interaction using AI, without compromising sovereignty, scale, or creative intent. About Imagen Network Imagen Network is a decentralized social platform that blends AI content generation with blockchain infrastructure to give users creative control and data ownership. Through tools like adaptive filters and tokenized engagement, Imagen fosters a new paradigm of secure, expressive, and community-driven networking. Media Contact Dorothy Marley KaJ Labs +1 707-622-6168 media@ Social Media Twitter Instagram
