アリババ、ＡＩとクラウドに７．８兆円投資へ　今後３年間で

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】中国電子商取引大手アリババ（阿里巴巴）は２４日、今後３年間で人工知能（ＡＩ）とクラウドコンピューティングに５００億ドル以上を投資すると発表した。同社の共同創業者、馬雲（ジャック・マー）氏は先週、習近平中国国家主席との会合に出席した。（写真は、中国電子商取引大手アリババ〈阿里巴巴〉のロゴ）
　アリババは２４日、「今後３年間で少なくとも３８００億元（５３０億ドル、約７兆８２００億円）をクラウドコンピューティングとＡＩインフラの強化に投資する計画だ」と声明で述べた。
　同社は「長期的な技術革新へのコミットメントを強化し、ＡＩによる成長に焦点を当てる」とする戦略を発表した。ただし、資金の配分や具体的なプロジェクトについての詳細は明らかにされなかった。
　投資額については、過去１０年間のＡＩおよびクラウドへの投資総額を上回るとしている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/02/25-17:07）

Chinese tech giant Alibaba said Monday it will spend more than $50 billion on artificial intelligence and cloud computing over the next three years, a week after co-founder Jack Ma was seen meeting President Xi Jinping.
Investors have piled into Chinese technology stocks since the start of the year, with Alibaba -- which runs some of the country's biggest online shopping platforms -- seeing its shares soar to three-year highs.
But shares of the e-commerce behemoth nosedived in New York after the big investment push raised worries that the spending would dent profitability.
The main takeaway is that Alibaba's ambitious spending plans for fiscal 2025 are creating some anxiety that the company's bottom-line will take a sizeable hit this year, negating the momentum that it has garnered, said a note from Briefing.com.
Near 16:35 GMT on Monday, shares of Alibaba were down more than nine percent.
Alibaba plans to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over the next three years to advance its cloud computing and AI infrastructure, a company statement said.
The firm said its strategy was aimed at reinforcing (Alibaba's) commitment to long-term technological innovation... (and) underscores the company's focus on AI-driven growth.
The statement did not detail how the company would allocate the funds or what specific projects would be supported.
It did add that the investment would exceed its total AI and cloud spending over the past decade.
Alibaba last week reported an eight percent bump in revenue for the three months through December, beating estimates to reach 280 billion yuan -- and triggering a 14 percent surge in its Hong Kong shares on Friday.
CEO Eddie Wu said last week that the quarterly results demonstrated substantial progress in (Alibaba's) 'user-first, AI-driven' strategies and the re-accelerated growth of our core businesses.
The company and its industry peers endured years of dampened investor confidence after Beijing launched an aggressive regulatory crackdown on the tech sector in 2020.
But they have been riding higher in recent months, buoyed by the launch of a chatbot by Chinese startup DeepSeek that has upended the AI industry.
The turnaround comes as the world's second-largest economy continues to battle sluggish consumption and persistent woes in the property sector.
At a rare meeting with business luminaries last week, Xi hailed the private sector and said the current economic problems were surmountable -- a move widely interpreted as a show of support for big tech.
Co-founder Ma remains an influential figure despite no longer being an Alibaba executive and shunning the limelight since authorities brought down affiliate Ant Group's high-stakes IPO in 2020.
His inclusion in the meeting hinted at the billionaire magnate's potential public rehabilitation following the tangle with regulators.