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Alibaba announces $53B investment in AI infrastructure over next 3 years

ISTANBUL

Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group has announced that it will invest $53 billion in the next three years to advance its cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, the company said on Monday.

“The investment, which exceeds Alibaba’s total AI and cloud spending over the past decade, underscores the company’s focus on AI-driven growth and its role as a leading global cloud provider,” according to the Alibaba Cloud blog.

The projected spending equals half of the original $100 billion investment in the Stargate AI plan, which was pushed by the US, according to the blog.

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu referred to AI as a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity during the company’s most recent earnings call, and he described that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is the company’s main long-term goal.

Wu stated that AI’s ability to imitate human intellectual and physical labor could radically change global sectors, resulting in huge economic and technical transformations. As AI models improve, a greater proportion of AI-generated data will be processed and delivered through cloud networks, establishing Alibaba Cloud as a crucial infrastructure provider.

“The potential of AI to mimic human mental and physical labor could drastically alter international businesses and lead to important technological and economic changes,” Wu noted.

An increasing proportion of data produced by AI will be processed and dispersed through cloud networks as AI models advance; this trend places Alibaba Cloud in a prominent position as a provider of infrastructure.

“With this investment, Alibaba is scaling up its AI capabilities and cloud infrastructure to support the next wave of technological advancements, ensuring businesses and developers have the tools to innovate and grow,” the statement added.