Latest news with #EddieWuYongming
The Star
25-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Alibaba's entertainment group renamed after killer whale as it seeks to revive growth
Alibaba Group Holding is renaming its digital entertainment division as part of a broader push to reinvigorate growth outside its core e-commerce and cloud businesses. Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group will be renamed Hujing Digital Media and Entertainment Group, using the Chinese name for the orca, or killer whale, Alibaba said in a statement on its official WeChat account on Wednesday. 'Orcas are large but flexible and smart, and can adapt to various complex environments,' the entertainment group said in a letter to employees. 'These characteristics are very consistent with the concept pursued by the entertainment group: digital intelligence, symbiosis and happiness.' Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. The rebranding adds to Alibaba's 'zoo', as some refer to the technology conglomerate's animal-themed businesses. It includes Tmall, represented by a black cat, and logistics unit Cainiao, which literally means 'rookie bird'. The move aligns with Alibaba's strategy to 'return to the original mission and start a new business', the company said. Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, two years ago announced a sweeping restructuring that split the company into six distinct business groups. It is now seeking to break down its internal silos. Earlier this month, CEO Eddie Wu Yongming told employees in an internal memo that the company would 'mobilise at full strength and concentrate our efforts on a few core strategic priorities', with 'key initiatives driven jointly by multiple businesses'. The company needed to 'embrace a zero-to-one mindset and think like a start-up to create new opportunities', he added. Separately, the filmmaking subsidiary Alibaba Pictures, which is overseen by the entertainment unit, announced a plan to change its name to Damai Entertainment Holdings, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday. The Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba Pictures rose by 23 per cent to HK$0.75 (10 US cents) on Wednesday. Alibaba Group closed up 1.2 per cent to HK$123.1. While the entertainment division remains a relatively small part of Alibaba's business empire, it posted improved results last financial year, which ended March 31. Revenue climbed 5 per cent to 22.3 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion), driven by growth at Alibaba Pictures and video platform Youku, according to the company's latest earnings report released this month. The unit accounted for just 2 per cent of Alibaba's total revenue of 996 billion yuan. The division remains unprofitable, though losses narrowed to 554 million yuan from 1.54 billion yuan in the previous year. More from South China Morning Post: For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2025.
South China Morning Post
24-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba commits US$53 billion for AI infrastructure in largest private computing project
Alibaba Group Holding will invest at least 380 billion yuan (US$52.4 billion) in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure over the next three years, in China's largest-ever computing project financed by a single private business, the company announced on Monday in a show of commitment to AI. Advertisement The planned outlay exceeds Alibaba's total spending on AI infrastructure over the past decade and matches half of the initial US$100 billion investment in the Stargate AI plan promoted by the US. In a conference call with analysts last week, CEO Eddie Wu Yongming said the company plans to 'aggressively invest' in AI and cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years. Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, has said the plans underscore its 'focus on AI-driven growth and its role as a leading global cloud provider'. 01:20 China's Alibaba releases new AI model, said to outperform competitors Deepseek and OpenAI's GPT-4o China's Alibaba releases new AI model, said to outperform competitors Deepseek and OpenAI's GPT-4o Alibaba's investment plan has grabbed national attention amid a national frenzy to apply AI following the popularity of DeepSeek 's models in recent months. The official Xinhua news agency on Monday first reported Alibaba's investment plan. Advertisement
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba investors hail e-commerce giant's AI pivot as it plots major investment outlay
E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding's strategic transformation into one of China's leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies has investors all agog, as the Hangzhou-based tech conglomerate ratchets up investment over the next three years in this field. Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares surged 15 per cent to close at HK$138.50 on Friday, following an 8 per cent gain overnight in New York, as the company beat analysts' consensus estimates with better-than-expected profit and revenue in the December quarter, as well as its major tech spending plan. Its New York-listed shares gained another 4 per cent in pre-market trading on Friday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Alibaba's AI strategy is "a bit aggressive, but worthwhile" because it is imperative for the company to win in the AI era, said iiMedia Research founder and chief analyst Zhang Yi. "If Alibaba is not a [major] AI company in the future, it will not be favoured by investors in the capital market." That assessment lends a sense of urgency to the goal set by Alibaba chief executive Eddie Wu Yongming on Thursday, when he said the company's next three-year capital outlay on AI and cloud computing infrastructure is expected to exceed what the group has spent over the past decade in building capabilities related to these technologies. JPMorgan analysts, led by Alex Yao, wrote in a research note that Alibaba's commitment shows its "strong confidence in [its] general AI monetisation outlook". The accelerated growth at the firm's Cloud Intelligence Group - with revenue up 13 per cent to 31.7 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion) in the December quarter from a year earlier - already showed investors the potential benefit of betting big on AI. Recent accomplishments by Alibaba Group Holding's cloud computing services and artificial intelligence arm, Alibaba Cloud, are stealing some of the thunder from Chinese AI darling DeepSeek. Photo: Shutterstock alt=Recent accomplishments by Alibaba Group Holding's cloud computing services and artificial intelligence arm, Alibaba Cloud, are stealing some of the thunder from Chinese AI darling DeepSeek. Photo: Shutterstock> The Hang Seng Index ended the week with a 3.8 per cent gain, stretching its winning run to six weeks for the longest streak since January 2023, with start-up DeepSeek's AI breakthrough as catalyst. That AI-triggered market rally saw Alibaba add more than US$110 billion to its market value. Investor excitement for Alibaba has also intensified because of its reported partnership with Apple to support AI features on iPhones in China. In a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Wu said Alibaba will soon release a deep-reasoning AI model built on its Qwen 2.5-Max model, in a move that is expected to offer developers an alternative open-source model to DeepSeek's R1. The start-up is globally recognised for developing advanced open-source AI models, V3 and R1, at a fraction of the cost and computing power that major tech companies typically require for large language model (LLM) projects. LLM is the technology underpinning generative AI services such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek's namesake chatbot. Open source gives public access to a program's source code, allowing third-party software developers to modify or share its design, fix broken links or scale up its capabilities. Open-source technologies have been a huge contributor to China's tech industry over the past few decades. Earlier this month, Alibaba Cloud's Qwen family of AI models was credited with the training and development of the world's top 10 open-source LLMs, according to collaborative machine-learning platform and community Hugging Face. Alibaba Cloud's Qwen family of open-source AI models have led to the creation of more than 90,000 models on Hugging Face, the collaborative machine-learning platform and community, according to the company's latest data. Photo: Shutterstock alt=Alibaba Cloud's Qwen family of open-source AI models have led to the creation of more than 90,000 models on Hugging Face, the collaborative machine-learning platform and community, according to the company's latest data. Photo: Shutterstock> Alibaba, which Jack Ma co-founded in 1999, is also sharpening its focus on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), Wu said on Thursday. AGI refers to an AI system's humanlike intelligence and ability to self-teach, performing tasks that it was not necessarily trained for. The company's plan to double down on AI and cloud computing investment echoes Ma's vision for the technology. In a visit to Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou last December, Ma gave a rare public speech on the 20th anniversary of fintech affiliate Ant Group, when he declared: "AI will change everything." "From today's perspective, the changes that artificial intelligence will bring in the next 20 years will be beyond everyone's imagination, as AI will bring a greater era," he said. In an opinion piece published by the Post last week, Alibaba co-founder and group chairman Joe Tsai pointed out the importance of "real-world implications that drive economic growth" on the back of AI. "Capital will go to companies that innovate with lower costs for training and deploying AI," Tsai wrote. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba to ramp up AI, cloud computing investments as quarterly profit surges 239%
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding saw profit surge 239 per cent cent in the December quarter to beat analysts' estimates, as the company's cloud computing services unit posted strong growth. "This quarter's results demonstrated substantial progress in our 'user first, AI-driven' strategies and the re-accelerated growth of our core businesses," said Eddie Wu Yongming, chief executive of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post. In a conference call with analysts, Wu said Alibaba plans to "aggressively invest" in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years, which is expected to exceed what the group has spent over the past decade in building its capabilities related to these technologies. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. "We are excited by the business opportunities being unlocked by this new technology cycle," he said. Alibaba's shares in New York were up 11 per cent in pre-market trading after the company reported its latest financial results. The Hangzhou-based tech conglomerate on Thursday reported that profit reached 48.9 billion yuan (US$6.7 billion) during the quarter, from 14.4 billion yuan a year ago, primarily on the back of "the increase in income from operations, mark-to-market changes from our equity investments, and the increase in share of results of equity method investees", Alibaba said. That was better than the 37.7 billion yuan quarterly profit expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Total revenue rose 8 per cent to 280.2 billion yuan in the three months ended December 31, compared with the consensus estimate of 277.4 billion yuan from a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The company has maintained single-digit revenue growth for the sixth consecutive quarter. Meanwhile, the company's adjusted EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation) - a measure under non-generally accepted accounting principles - rose 4 per cent year on year to 54.9 billion yuan, beating the consensus estimate of 53.6 billion yuan. A woman walks past Alibaba Group Holding's offices in Beijing on February 14, 2025. Photo: AFP alt=A woman walks past Alibaba Group Holding's offices in Beijing on February 14, 2025. Photo: AFP> Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares, meanwhile, slid 2.6 per cent to close at HK$120.90, retreating from a three-year high before its earnings report. The firm added more than US$110 billion to its market value amid the euphoria surrounding Chinese start-up DeepSeek's recent AI breakthrough. "Looking ahead, revenue growth at Cloud Intelligence Group driven by AI will continue to accelerate," Wu said. "We will continue to execute against our strategic priorities in e-commerce and cloud computing, including further investment to drive long-term growth." The latest quarterly results reflect Alibaba's efforts to sharpen the focus of its sprawling business empire towards e-commerce and AI, leveraging its status as China's largest cloud services provider. Cloud computing services enable companies to buy, sell, lease or distribute a range of software and other digital resources as an on-demand service over the internet, just like electricity from a power grid. These resources are managed inside data centres. Revenue from the Cloud Intelligence Group, one of Alibaba's key growth pillars, rose 13 per cent to 31.7 billion yuan, helped by the strong AI-related product revenue which achieved triple-digit growth for the sixth consecutive quarter. Wu pointed out that Alibaba will soon release a deep-reasoning AI model built on its Qwen 2.5-Max model, in an apparent bid to challenge DeepSeek's R1 model, while doubling down on research and development (R&D). "AI foundation models are pivotal to transforming industry productivity." he said. "We will substantially increase R&D investment in AI foundation models to maintain our technological leadership and drive the development of AI-native applications." Alibaba entered into a partnership with US consumer electronics giant Apple to develop AI features for iPhones in China on the strength of the firm's Qwen family of AI models, according to a Post report last week, which cited people familiar with the matter. Apple has reportedly picked Alibaba Group Holding, backed by its Qwen family of artificial intelligence models, as its China partner to bring AI features to iPhones on the mainland. Photo: Shutterstock alt=Apple has reportedly picked Alibaba Group Holding, backed by its Qwen family of artificial intelligence models, as its China partner to bring AI features to iPhones on the mainland. Photo: Shutterstock> Wu said Alibaba's primary focus is to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), which he defines as the point when AI is able to achieve 80 per cent of human capabilities. He expects AGI to have a tremendous impact on reshaping industries around the world, potentially accounting for half of global gross domestic product in the long run. That would justify Alibaba's increased AI and cloud computing investments. Taobao and Tmall Group, the domestic e-commerce unit of Alibaba, saw revenue increase 5 per cent to 136.1 billion yuan, driven by online gross merchandise volume growth and year-on-year improvement in so-called take-up rates. Customer management revenue, a key measure of the unit's monetisation drive, saw 9 per cent growth in the quarter from the same period last year. Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, meanwhile, pulled off a 32 per cent gain in the quarter to achieve sales of 37.8 billion yuan, primarily driven by the strong performance of its cross-border business. Last November, the company's e-commerce operations went through its largest adjustment since a restructuring of the tech giant into six distinct units in early 2023. In the latest revamp, Alibaba consolidated all of its e-commerce operations into a single group, comprising domestic platforms Taobao and Tmall, its international online shopping business, online wholesale market 1688 and Xianyu. The combined entity is led by Jiang Fan, one of Alibaba's youngest partners. In Thursday's conference call, Wu said that Alibaba's international e-commerce operation is likely to post its first profitable quarter in the next financial year. Alibaba slashed around 3,600 jobs in the past quarter, with total employee headcount at 194,320 by the year's end. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
South China Morning Post
20-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba to ramp up AI, cloud computing investments as quarterly profit surges 239%
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding saw profit surge 239 per cent cent in the December quarter to beat analysts' estimates, as the company's cloud computing services unit posted strong growth. Advertisement 'This quarter's results demonstrated substantial progress in our 'user first, AI-driven' strategies and the re-accelerated growth of our core businesses,' said Eddie Wu Yongming , chief executive of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post. In a conference call with analysts, Wu said Alibaba plans to 'aggressively invest' in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years, which is expected to exceed what the group has spent over the past decade in building its capabilities related to these technologies. 'We are excited by the business opportunities being unlocked by this new technology cycle,' he said. Alibaba's shares in New York were up 11 per cent in pre-market trading after the company reported its latest financial results. Advertisement
