Alibaba seeks $10 billion from share sale for AI expansion

The deal comes as Alibaba ratchets up quarterly capital spending to almost $10 billion.
| Photo Credit:
Dado Ruvic

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is seeking to raise about HK$80 billion ($10.2 billion) from a share sale, its latest move to compete for global leadership in artificial intelligence.

The online retail giant-turned-AI player is offering 710 million shares at HK$112.7 each, according to terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News. That represents a discount of 3.6 per cent to the closing price of Alibaba’s American depositary receipts on Friday.

The placement would be Hong Kong’s biggest follow-on offering by a company on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It would also be the city’s biggest share sale since 2021, when technology-investment firm Prosus NV sold $14.7 billion in shares of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The deal comes as the Chinese company ratchets up quarterly capital spending to almost $10 billion, aiming to safeguard its position in a fiercely competitive global AI arena. It intends to use the proceeds to invest in full-stack AI capabilities, including by expanding and enhancing its infrastructure. 

Alibaba will be subject to a lockup of 90 days. China International Capital Corp., HSBC Holdings Plc, Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG are arranging the deal, according to the terms.  

Hangzhou-based Alibaba’s profit plunged more than 75 per cent for the June quarter to 10.5 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) and it registered a free-cash outflow of $6.6 billion, reflecting the rising cost of AI projects and computing infrastructure.

China’s e-commerce leader this year cemented its status as a global artificial intelligence frontrunner after its flagship Qwen offering became the world’s most popular model family. 

Alibaba is among the biggest spenders on AI among its Chinese rivals. The company, a domestic leader in cloud computing, has been hiving off assets and deploying capital toward everything from chips and data centers to large-language model development.

Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Source: Read the original article on www.thehindubusinessline.com