Trending Now - Alibaba Aims for $100B in AI and Cloud Revenue by 2028

WHO:

Alibaba Group, CEO Eddie Wu, Lin Junyang (head of AI model division Qwen), First Eagle Fund (manager of a $17 billion fund)

WHAT:

Alibaba Group pledged to surpass $100 billion in revenue from its artificial intelligence and cloud businesses by 2028.

The company reported a 67% drop in profit for the October-December quarter.

Overall revenue for the quarter was 284.8 billion yuan ($41.4 billion), a 2% year-on-year increase.

Revenue from the cloud business increased by 36% to 43.3 billion yuan ($6.2 billion).

Profit for the quarter was 16.3 billion yuan ($2.4 billion), down from 48.9 billion yuan in the same quarter the previous year.

Alibaba announced a price increase for some AI services by as much as 34%.

Launched the agentic AI tool Wukong.

WHERE:

Hong Kong (location of the announcement), Hangzhou (headquarters of Alibaba)

WHEN:

The announcement was made on Thursday, March 17th, 2026.

The reported financial results were for the October-December quarter of 2025.

Alibaba pledged investments of at least 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years last year (2025).

WHY:

The goal of surpassing $100 billion in revenue is driven by the anticipated boom in AI demand.

The drop in profit is attributed to growing marketing and sales expenses and a price war in the food delivery segment.

HOW:

Alibaba is expanding and upgrading its flagship Qwen AI app and consumer-facing chatbot.

The company provides cloud computing and storage services to commercial customers.

(UPDATED March 19, 2026 17:23 UTC)

Alibaba Group has announced a bold pledge to exceed $100 billion in revenue from its artificial intelligence and cloud businesses by 2028, a move revealed by CEO Eddie Wu and Lin Junyang, head of the AI model division, during an event in Hong Kong last Thursday. Despite reporting a 67% drop in profit for the October to December quarter of 2025, the company saw overall revenue rise to 284.8 billion yuan, with a significant 36% increase in revenue from its cloud business. To support this ambitious goal, Alibaba is investing at least 380 billion yuan over three years and has launched the new agentic AI tool Wukong, while also announcing price increases for some AI services.