The company reported a 9 per cent increase in revenue, broadly in line with market expectations, driven in part by strong demand for computing capacity from its cloud business. Alibaba’s US-listed shares fell about 4 per cent in pre-market trading following the results. The Hangzhou-based company has emerged as one of China’s leading AI players, with its Qwen family of models gaining global attention. Alibaba has committed tens of billions of dollars toward AI infrastructure, including chips, data centres and the development of AI agents, as it seeks to compete with leading US firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The rapid expansion of its AI operations, however, is putting pressure on margins at a time when China’s consumer spending remains subdued.