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☆ Alibaba Cloud slashes prices by as much as 55% to fuel AI growth in China
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Sheila Chiang | In Sheilachiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Alibaba 's cloud business on Thursday said it is cutting prices on a wide range of core cloud products by as much as 55%, in a bid to fuel AI growth in China. The move aims to make "cloud capabilities more inclusive and accessible in the era of AI," Alibaba Cloud said. "As the biggest cloud service provider in China and APAC, we see tremendous growth prospect of China's digital market," said Liu Weiguang, president of public cloud business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. "One is using cloud to support generative AI initiatives. With its massive calls on compute, storage, and networking, generative AI needs cloud to scale.

Persons: Alibaba, Liu Weiguang, Liu, OpenAI Organizations: Alibaba, Holding, Smart, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, McKinsey Locations: Chongqing, China

Signage for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. covers the front facade of the New York Stock Exchange November 11, 2015. Cloud competition from HuaweiAlibaba has been an industry leader in the cloud business. Alibaba in November blamed U.S. restrictions on chip sales to China for the decision to pull the cloud IPO. Alibaba said its cloud business revenue grew by just 2% year on year in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Those resellers were other companies that had acted as distributors or agents for Alibaba cloud and received commissions.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, It's, Alibaba, hasn't, they're, Duncan Clark, Clark, ”, Jack Ma, Brian Wong, Eddie Wu, Trudy Dai, Daniel Zhang, Yi Zhang, —, Alibaba's, Canalys, BDA's Clark Organizations: Alibaba Group Holding, New York Stock, Reuters, BDA, Alibaba Group, Alibaba, Duncan Clark BDA, Huawei Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent, “ Global Locations: Reuters BEIJING, U.S, China, Beijing, Alibaba

☆ Alibaba shares slide over 8% after it disappoints on profit, curbs cloud spinoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Signage at the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. booth at the Smart China Expo in Chongqing, China, on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. Here's how Alibaba did in the September quarter, compared with Refinitiv consensus estimates:Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders: 27.7 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) versus 29.7 billion yuan expected. 27.7 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) versus 29.7 billion yuan expected. Revenue: 224.79 billion yuan ($31 billion) versus 224.3 billion yuan expected. On Thursday, Alibaba said that the U.S. chip restrictions have "created uncertainties for the prospects of Cloud Intelligence Group."

Persons: Alibaba, Eddie Wu, Daniel Zhang, Joe Tsai Organizations: Alibaba, Holding, Smart, U.S, Cloud Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Locations: Chongqing, China, U.S

☆ Alibaba tells Erdogan it plans to invest $2 billion in Turkey
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Shopping trolley is seen in front of Alibaba logo in this illustration, July 24, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsISTANBUL, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) has told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan it plans to invest $2 billion in Turkey. Michael Evans, president of Alibaba, made the comments in a meeting with Erdogan, according to a statement from the company's Turkish unit. Evans also said Alibaba has invested $1.4 billion in Turkey through its unit Trendyol, one of Turkey's best known e-commerce platforms, the statement said. Erdogan is in the United States to attend the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Tayyip Erdogan, Michael Evans, Alibaba, Erdogan, Evans, Trendyol, Caglayan Cetin, Daren Butler, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Alibaba, Holding, HK, Turkish, General, Istanbul, Thomson Locations: Rights ISTANBUL, Turkey, Turkish, United States, Ankara

☆ Alibaba CEO warns of being ‘displaced’ if the Chinese tech giant doesn’t keep up in AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Signage at the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. booth at the Smart China Expo in Chongqing, China, on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. Alibaba needs to be "user first" and "AI-driven," new CEO Eddie Wu told employees on Tuesday, as he laid out the strategic priorities for the Chinese tech giant. As the world progresses, Alibaba needs to evolve even faster!," Wu said in a letter to employees that was seen by CNBC. However, in a surprise move, Zhang this week quit as CEO of the cloud business with Wu taking over in the interim. It comes months after Alibaba split its company into six different business groups, the biggest shakeup in its history.

Persons: Eddie Wu, Wu, Jack Ma's, Daniel Zhang, Zhang, Alibaba Organizations: Alibaba, Holding, Smart, CNBC Locations: Chongqing, China

☆ Alibaba's grocery unit IPO put on ice amid disappointing valuation - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Alibaba said in May that Freshippo's IPO would be completed in six to 12 months and that it was also considering listing its logistic unit, Cainiao. Alibaba's capital management committee, which is overseeing the breakup of the company, recently decided to wait for a more favorable market before moving forward with a Freshippo IPO and will prioritize listings of other units, the report added. Reuters reported last year that Freshippo was seeking to raise funds at a valuation of about $6 billion, much lower than a hoped-for valuation of up to $10 billion earlier. The Freshippo business is a supermarket chain in China and also offers services like dine-in and 30-minute home delivery. Reporting by Shubhendu Deshmukh and Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Alibaba, Freshippo, Shubhendu Deshmukh, Yuvraj Malik, Anil D'Silva Organizations: REUTERS, Holding, Bloomberg, Reuters, Thomson Locations: HK, Hong Kong, China, Bengaluru

☆ Alibaba's cloud division eyes state firms for up to $3 bln fundraising- Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the Alibaba Cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsSept 4 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's (9988.HK) cloud division is weighing raising funds via a private round from Chinese state-owned enterprises ahead of the business' market debut in Hong Kong, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. The tech giant is working with advisers on a potential fundraise by its Cloud Intelligence unit that could mop up about 10-20 billion yuan ($1.38-$2.75 billion), the report said, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Earlier this year, Alibaba announced plans to restructure into six units following a two-year regulatory crackdown on China's tech sector. It approved a full spinoff of the Cloud Intelligence Group via a stock dividend distribution to shareholders, aiming to complete the public listing within the next 12 months.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Alibaba, Shivani Tanna, Dhanya Ann Thoppil Organizations: REUTERS, Bloomberg, Cloud Intelligence, Cloud Intelligence Group, Ant, Thomson Locations: HK, Hong Kong, Alibaba, Bengaluru

REUTERS/Aly Song Acquire Licensing RightsSHANGHAI, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group's (9988.HK) work communication and collaboration platform DingTalk will split from the company's cloud division, according to two sources close to the company. Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Business Group did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the matter. Though the Slack-like DingTalk will split structurally from Alibaba's Cloud Business Intelligence unit, the sources said it would continue to work closely with the cloud division technology-wise. The tech giant announced the split of its business in March and has said the cloud division was likely to IPO by May next year. Alibaba Group last week reported better than expected results for its first quarter, but sales for its Cloud Intelligence Business Group, a major growth driver outside of e-commerce, reported the smallest revenue growth among the group's business units of 4%.

Persons: Aly, Group's, DingTalk, Casey Hall, Himani Sarkar, Conor Humphries Organizations: Alibaba, Holding, REUTERS, Rights, HK, Alibaba Holding, Cloud Intelligence Business Group, Cloud Business Intelligence, Thomson Locations: Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China

☆ A hedge fund manager shares 2 ChatGPT prompts and the AI plugin he used to filter top stock picks
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

He fed the LLM data from a terminal and asked it to filter its findings through top academic literature and fund managers. Building on the knowledgeIn his earlier experiments, Patel and his team manually pasted increments of stock data into ChatGPT's text box. Using Julius AI, Patel was able to input data for over 6,800 stocks to see if the outcomes or accuracy would change. The metrics Patel chose to input were based on company fundamentals that he felt were important when picking stocks. Patel concluded that whether it's a human analyst or AI that's picking stocks, there are no guarantees in the stock market.

Persons: Alpesh Patel, it's, Patel, Julius AI, Julius, Price, ChatGPT's, Warren Buffett, Cisco Systems Inc Patel, Johnson, Eli Lilly, Rahul Sonwalkar, you've Organizations: NYSE, Nasdaq, US Securities and Exchange Commission, FTSE, New York Stock Exchange, Alpha, Broadcom, Cisco Systems Inc, Apple Inc UnitedHealth, Johnson, Johnson Exxon Mobil Corp Visa Inc Tesla, Walmart, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Procter, Gamble, Chevron Corp Mastercard, Depot Inc, Pfizer, AbbVie Inc Merck, Co Inc, Cola Co, Pepsico, Broadcom Inc Alibaba

☆ Stocks making the biggest premarket moves: Alibaba, Dice Therapeutics, Avis and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Atmus Filtration Technologies — Shares of the air filtration company rose more than 2% after a slew of analysts initiated coverage with bullish ratings, including JPMorgan. The bank said Atmus trades at a "deep discounted valuation vs. peers, despite >80% of aftermarket mix, while its planned expansion into industrial filtration should bridge the valuation gap vs. direct filtration peers over time." Avis Budget — Shares added 3.5% in light volume following an upgrade by Morgan Stanley to overweight from equal weight. Philip Morris International — Shares of the tobacco company rose 1.5% in premarket trading after Citi upgraded Philip Morris to buy from neutral. Carnival — Shares moved 1.5% higher in the premarket, building on gains made last week when it was the S&P 500's best performer.

Persons: Daniel Zhang, Eddie Wu, Alibaba's, Eli Lilly, Morgan Stanley, Adam Jonas, Jonas, Avis, Philip Morris, —, Jesse Pound Organizations: Alibaba, Holding, JPMorgan, Avis Budget, Citi, Warner Bros Discovery Locations: Beijing, China, —

☆ SoftBank prepares new round of layoffs at Vision Fund, Reuters reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

SoftBank's Vision Fund posted a record loss in the year ended Mar. The flagship tech investment unit has been hit by the falling prices of tech stocks. SoftBank Group Corp is planning a fresh round of layoffs at its Vision Fund investment arm, two people familiar with the matter said, the latest cost-cutting move at the Japanese conglomerate. SoftBank's Vision Fund unit, which has booked heavy investment losses, had headcount of 349 at the end of March, according to a company report. It cushioned the investment loss at the Vision Fund unit by selling down its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Persons: ByteDance Organizations: Vision, Mar, SoftBank, Corp, Vision Fund, Fund, International, Alibaba, Holding Locations: U.S, China

SAN FRANCISCO, June 12 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is planning a fresh round of layoffs at its Vision Fund investment arm, two people familiar with the matter said, the latest cost-cutting move at the Japanese conglomerate. SoftBank's Vision Fund unit, which has booked heavy investment losses, had headcount of 349 at the end of March, according to a company report. If finalized, this would follow the elimination of about 150 jobs globally at the investing arm and SoftBank Group International in September. It cushioned the investment loss at the Vision Fund unit by selling down its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK). Vision Fund 2's portfolio was worth $31 billion at end-March compared with an acquisition cost of $49.9 billion.

Persons: ByteDance, SoftBank, SoftBank's, Krystal Hu, Sam Nussey, Kenneth Li, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: FRANCISCO, SoftBank Group Corp, Vision Fund, Fund, SoftBank, International, Vision, Alibaba, Holding, HK, Intel, Thomson Locations: U.S, China, The Cambridge, England, San Francisco, Tokyo

☆ China's Baidu launches $145 million venture capital AI fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SHANGHAI, May 31 (Reuters) - Chinese search giant Baidu Inc (9988.HK) will set up a venture capital fund of 1 billion yuan ($145 million) to back start-ups focused on content generated by artificial intelligence applications, it said on Wednesday. The company will also launch a competition for developers to build applications off its ERNIE large language model (LLM) or integrate the model into their existing products, it added. E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) was among the other Chinese companies that followed quickly. In response to the surge of LLMs, China published draft regulations in April on the use of generative AI. ($1=6.9121 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Josh Horwitz, Samuel Shen and Jason Xue; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Ernie Bot, Josh Horwitz, Samuel Shen, Jason Xue, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Baidu Inc, HK, Baidu, Alibaba, Holding, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, China, United States

☆ Abu Dhabi's Mubadala to buy majority stake in Fortress Investment from SoftBank
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 22 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Co will acquire a majority stake in U.S. asset manager Fortress Investment Group from Japan's SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T). Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Mubadala and Fortress Investment said in a joint statement on Monday. After the completion of the deal, Fortress' management will own a 30% stake in the company, while Mubadala Capital will hold the rest, according to the statement. Fortress management will hold a class of equity that entails it to appoint a majority of seats on the board. Fortress will appoint Drew McKnight and Joshua Pack as co-CEOs and Pete Briger as chairman, the companies said.

☆ Asian stocks inch up on US debt ceiling hopes, Nikkei hits 33-year high
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index (.AXJO) rose 0.66%, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) continued its ascent, rising to its highest since August 1990, during the country's so-called bubble era. Futures indicated European stocks were set to open higher, with Eurostoxx 50 futures up 0.44%, German DAX futures up 0.41% and FTSE futures up 0.23%. China's blue-chip CSI300 Index (.CSI300) rose 0.20%, while the Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) was up 0.13%, having reversed from earlier losses. Hawkish rhetoric from Fed speakers continued with Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard saying inflation was not cooling fast enough to allow the Fed to pause its interest-rate hike campaign. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar rose 0.029% and was wedged near a two-month high.

☆ Asian shares mixed as China growth worries crimp U.S. debt ceiling optimism
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) eased 0.20% but was set to eke out a gain of 0.19% for the week. Data in the week underscored that China's economy lost momentum at the beginning of the second quarter, stoking worries over the wobbly post-COVID-19 recovery. Investor attention has been firmly on the negotiations over U.S. debt ceiling and increasing hopes that a deal could be reached sent U.S. shares higher overnight . Hawkish rhetoric from Fed speakers continued with Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard saying inflation was not cooling fast enough to allow the Fed to pause its interest-rate hike campaign. U.S. crude fell 0.14% to $71.76 per barrel and Brent was at $75.78, down 0.11% on the day.

☆ Alibaba misses revenue estimate, approves cloud unit spinoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"We would love nothing more than to see one of these little Alibabas...becoming another big Alibaba, as big as the group company is right now," said Alibaba Group chairman Daniel Zhang on an earnings call. Alibaba logged revenue of 208.20 billion yuan ($30.12 billion) for the three months ended in March, compared with a Refinitiv consensus estimate of 210.3 billion yuan. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was 23.52 billion yuan for the quarter, reversing a year earlier loss of 16.24 billion yuan. Revenue for Alibaba's cloud division in the recent quarter was 18.6 billion yuan, down 2% year-on-year. The company has opened up registration to test the technology to enterprise customers of Alibaba Cloud.

☆ Alibaba fourth-quarter revenue rises 2%
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 18 (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK), said on Thursday that fourth-quarter revenue climbed 2%, missing expectations. The 208.20 billion yuan ($30.12 billion) logged for the three months ended in March compares with a Refinitiv consensus estimate of 210.3 billion yuan drawn from 26 analysts. Chinese consumer spending has gained some momentum since the country abandoned draconian zero-COVID policies late last year, but still remains relatively muted amid a wobbly economic recovery. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was 23.52 billion yuan, compared with a loss of 16.24 billion yuan. Revenue for the full year climbed 2% to 868.69 billion yuan, marking its slowest rate of growth since the company went public in 2014.

☆ Tencent cuts cloud service prices up to 40% to fend off rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) said last month it would slash prices for some cloud products by up to 50%. Wei Yunfeng, a researcher at data firm IDC, said the price cuts were triggered in part by high sales targets despite slowing growth for the market. Alibaba's cloud revenue accounts for about 9% of its total revenue. James Mitchell, Tencent's chief strategy officer, told analysts on a call: "The impact of price cuts on Tencent as a whole is not notable." Moreover, price cuts only apply to its infrastructure-as-a-service business, which represent only a portion of Tencent's cloud services.

Asian markets, particularly China's, will be hoping this sparks a recovery from Wednesday's decline following yet another batch of sub-par Chinese economic indicators. The Chinese yuan fell below 7.00 per dollar for the first time in nearly six months and with GDP forecasts being slashed, analysts reckon the yuan could be poised for more weakness. Citi's Chinese economic surprises index had its biggest fall in two years and one of the steepest on record. Economists polled by Reuters expect the unemployment rate to hold steady at 3.5% and net new job growth to slow to 25,000. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Tencent slashes cloud service prices by up to 40% as price war intensifies
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, May 17 (Reuters) - Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) is cutting prices for cloud services by up to 40% from June amid similar moves from rivals that have plunged the sector into a price war. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) said last month it will slash prices for some cloud products by up to 50%. Charlie Chai, an analyst at 86Research, said Chinese cloud service providers had in the past made efforts to avert a price war but "at the end of the day they still went down this path". Alibaba's cloud revenue accounts for about 9% of its total revenue. Tencent does not break out separate figures for cloud revenue.

[1/2] The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. The fourth-quarter earnings come after the Vision Fund unit posted four consecutive quarters of investment loss, with investors debating whether the value of privately held stakes have further to fall. Portfolio firms of the Vision Fund unit whose shares climbed during January-March include e-commerce firm Coupang Inc (CPNG.N) and robotics firm AutoStore Holdings Ltd (AUTO.OL). What matters is Arm for SoftBank to demonstrate it can get results as an investment company," said SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Satoru Kikuchi. Still, SoftBank executives are unlikely to offer meaningful new information about the Arm listing on Thursday, Kikuchi said.

☆ Alibaba's global online commerce arm weighs US IPO - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 4 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's (9988.HK), international online shopping unit is exploring a U.S. initial public offering, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday citing people familiar with the matter. The e-commerce giant is in the early stages of consideration and the IPO's size is yet to be determined, the report added. The business group is in talks with banks that could potentially help prepare for the IPO next year, according to the report. However, in an emailed statement to Reuters, Alibaba Digital Commerce Group said, "Currently, there is no IPO plan". Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Alibaba's global online commerce arm weighs US IPO, Bloomberg reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

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