Alibaba’s net profit increased by 60% in fiscal year 2024

Alibaba’s CEO Wu Yongming said in the financial report that he would strengthen AI and cloud technology to make it the locomotive of long-term development. Alibaba will promote the integration of artificial intelligence in various businesses such as e-commerce to boost performance.

Alibaba provides the basic model of generative AI through its cloud business. The latest version of “Qwen 3” provided in April is very cost-effective when used, which will help promote the use of cloud platforms.

The company believes that with the popularization of generative AI, the demand for cloud as a foundation will increase. In February, it announced that it would invest at least 380 billion yuan in cloud and AI infrastructure in the next three years. Capital expenditures such as equipment investment in fiscal year 2024 increased to 2.7 times the previous year, reaching 85.9 billion yuan.

Alibaba is the largest cloud business company in China, but has been catching up with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google in the United States worldwide. Alibaba hopes to accelerate the expansion of overseas markets, which have been lagging behind, by providing basic models, and has expanded data centers in Mexico and Thailand.

Alibaba also released a financial report for January to March 2025, showing that operating income increased by 7% year-on-year to 236.4 billion yuan, and net profit increased by 3.8 times year-on-year to 12.3 billion yuan. The increase in the valuation of investment targets contributed to this. In terms of business, the operating income of overseas e-commerce increased by 22%, but the growth rate was slower than in the past.