Alibaba Aims to Compete with OpenAI and MS, Investing 75 Trillion Won in Cloud and AI

"Exceeds Total Investment of Past Decade...
Largest Scale Ever by a Chinese Company"

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, is giving a lecture at a seminar held in Bali, Indonesia, in 2018. Alibaba announced on the 24th that it will invest 380 billion yuan (75 trillion won) over three years in the fields of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). / AP·Yonhap News Photo by AP

China's giant e-commerce company Alibaba announced on the 24th that it will invest 380 billion yuan (75 trillion won) over three years in cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors.

Alibaba Group Holdings officially announced on the same day that it plans to invest 380 billion yuan in AI infrastructure such as data centers over the next three years. This amount surpasses Alibaba's total investment in AI and cloud computing over the past decade and represents the largest investment ever made by a Chinese private company in the AI field.

During the Q3 earnings announcement on the 20th, Eddie Wu, Alibaba's CEO, emphasized the importance of AI by mentioning it 20 times. Wu stated, "Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is now the company's core goal," expressing the intention to join the AI competition led by major U.S. companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft (MS), and Alphabet (Google's parent company).

This investment announcement came amid the recent visible rapid development of China's AI industry, including companies like DeepSea, and attracted attention as Alibaba's founder Jack Ma appeared at a private enterprise forum hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ma's appearance at the forum was interpreted as a sign of his rehabilitation after having been sidelined by the Chinese government following his strong remarks five years ago, which elicited a positive response from the market.

Alibaba Group's stock closed at $143.75 on the 24th, up 5.7%. The stock price has risen more than 14% over the past five trading days and about 68% since the beginning of the year. The mention of Ma's possible rehabilitation is seen as improving investor sentiment.