(Reuters) -Alibaba said on Monday it plans to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($52.44 billion) in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next three years.
The Chinese e-commerce giant had said it had plans to invest in the sector while announcing its results on Friday, but did not provide an exact figure at the time.
The company had reported revenue of 280.15 billion yuan for the three months ended December 31, marginally ahead of analysts’ estimates.
Alibaba said the total investment amount exceeds the company’s spending in AI and cloud computing over the past decade.
The company has kicked off 2025 as a winner in China’s AI race, drawing in investors with strategic business deals. Its stock has risen more than 68% this year, as of last close.
Other Chinese firms have also been investing into the sector, with ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, earmarking over 150 billion yuan in capital expenditure for this year, much of which will be centred on AI according to sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported in late January.
($1 = 7.2470 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
