Alibaba (9988.HK) announced on Wednesday a wide-ranging push into artificial intelligence (AI), unveiling a partnership with Nvidia, a global data centre expansion plan, and new AI products, as it seeks to make artificial intelligence a core business priority alongside its e-commerce operations.
The news sent its Hong Kong-listed shares soaring nearly 10% to a four-year high, with U.S.-listed shares (BABA.N) also jumping almost 10% in pre-market trading, as investors welcomed the company’s AI drive amid intensifying competition from domestic rivals such as DeepSeek and Tencent (0700.HK).
Speaking at the annual Apsara Conference, Alibaba’s chief executive Eddie Wu said, “The speed of AI industry development has far exceeded our expectations, and the industry’s demand for AI infrastructure has also far exceeded our expectations.”
He added that the company would step up spending, though without disclosing figures. Earlier this year, Alibaba pledged 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) in AI infrastructure over three years.
Nvidia partnership and global data centres
At the conference, Alibaba revealed plans to work with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA.O) on physical AI capabilities including data synthesis, model training, environmental simulation and validation testing.
It also announced that its first data centres in Brazil, France and the Netherlands will open soon, with further facilities planned for Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Dubai over the next year. This will add to its existing network of 91 data centres across 29 regions worldwide. The company did not say if the new sites would use Nvidia chips.
According to Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at Omdia, “Alibaba’s 2025 Apsara Conference demonstrated strong results from years of AI investment. The overseas data centre investments will help expand Alibaba’s influence among international AI developers and enterprise users.”
The expansion follows Nvidia’s recent announcement of a deal to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and provide it with data centre chips.
New AI models and products
Alibaba also introduced its most advanced AI language model yet, the Qwen3-Max, which has more than one trillion parametres. Chief technology officer Zhou Jingren said the model excels in code generation and autonomous agent capabilities, meaning it requires fewer human prompts than systems such as ChatGPT and can independently pursue user-defined goals.
On benchmarks such as Tau2-Bench, Alibaba claimed Qwen3-Max outperformed competitors including Anthropic’s Claude and DeepSeek-V3.1 in several categories. The Qwen3 series was first released in April.
Other launches included Qwen3-Omni, a multimodal system for immersive experiences in virtual and augmented reality, designed for applications such as smart glasses and intelligent vehicle cockpits.
Cloud business momentum
Alibaba’s pivot towards AI has already delivered results. Last month, the company reported strong quarterly earnings driven by its cloud business, where revenue rose 26%, underscoring its progress in turning AI into a major growth engine.
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Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 28 September 2026. These are the top stories making headlines in technology.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has arrived in Washington for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on bilateral ties and key regional and international developments, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.
The European Union's decision to simultaneously advance accession talks with Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and Albania marks its most ambitious enlargement effort in more than two decades.
U.S. President Donald Trump has denied reports that he offered Iran sanctions relief and access to frozen funds in exchange for nuclear concessions.
In the marshlands of Malluba in southern Azerbaijan, Kamil Mammadov follows a routine that has been passed down through generations. His family has worked with medicinal leeches for centuries, harvesting and breeding a species known as Hirudo orientalis, or the Caucasian medicinal leech.
Baku is hosting the second Azerbaijan International Investment Forum (AIIF 2026) and it’s attracting more interest this year, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister told AnewZ. “The agenda is very impressive. More guests, more interest,” he said.
Warren Buffett has stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, marking the end of one of the most influential leadership tenures in corporate history and completing a succession process that has been years in the making.
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote launched Africa's biggest-ever share sale on Monday, opening the oil refinery that has remade the country's fuel market to public ownership for the first time.
Volkswagen’s supervisory board has approved a major overhaul aimed at cutting 100,000 jobs by 2030 as the German carmaker battles weaker sales, falling profits and intensifying global competition.
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