# Alibaba
Latest news and articles about Alibaba
Total: 53 articles found
Two Spring Festivals, One Industry: How China’s Tech Giants Turned AI into a Holiday Battle for National Reach
China’s AI competition has shifted from model development to a consumer battleground during two consecutive Lunar New Year campaigns. Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent and Baidu used subsidies, embedded assistants and viral features to fight for national traffic, while smaller firms pursue agent‑style products that combine multiple models. The outcome will reshape who controls mass AI touchpoints in China, narrow the US–China model gap and raise barriers for smaller players unless they adopt alternative, interoperable strategies.
Forty‑Five Billion Yuan and a New Front: China’s Tech Giants Turn Lunar New Year Into an AI User‑Education Arms Race
China’s biggest tech firms spent more than 45 billion yuan over the 2026 Lunar New Year in an AI‑focused red‑envelope battle that mixed cash prizes, task‑based incentives and offline vouchers. The campaign was a large‑scale acquisition and product‑education experiment whose success will be decided not by downloads or single‑night peaks but by whether users form lasting habits and remain active after the holiday.
Alibaba and Tencent Back High‑Valued Chinese AI Startup in $700m Round as Founder Says Cash Hoard Tops ¥10bn — ‘Not IPO‑Driven’
A major Chinese AI startup raised over $700 million in a round led by Alibaba and Tencent, valuing it above $10 billion. The founder — a post‑1990s entrepreneur — said the company holds more than ¥10 billion in cash and is not pursuing an IPO, highlighting a shift toward long‑term, control‑oriented growth amid an intensely competitive AI funding surge.
China’s Kimi Rockets to a $10–12bn Valuation After Two Rapid Funding Rounds Exceeding $1.2bn
Kimi, a Chinese AI startup also known as Yue Zhi Anmian, has raised over $700 million in a new funding round led by existing investors, bringing two consecutive financings to more than $1.2 billion and valuing the company at $10–12 billion. The deals signal strong investor appetite for large AI models in China and a scramble by tech giants to secure model supply, but commercialisation and regulatory risks remain significant.
Qianwen Pushes From Chat to Checkout with Daily 'First-Order' Discount
Qianwen has launched a 'daily first-order' discount that gives users reduced prices — as low as RMB 3.8 — when they place orders via its one-sentence AI ordering feature, and those discounts can be combined with promotions on major platforms like Taobao, Fliggy and Damai. The move is designed to convert AI-driven interactions into frequent commercial transactions, accelerating Qianwen's shift from research project to consumer-facing commerce channel.
Alibaba’s Qwen3.5 Claims Gemini‑3‑Pro Parity at a Fraction of the Cost — A Shift from Scale to Efficiency
Alibaba has open‑sourced Qwen3.5‑Plus, a 397B‑parameter multimodal model the company says matches Gemini 3 Pro’s performance while operating with only ~17B activated parameters and much lower inference costs. The model emphasises architectural efficiency, native multimodal pretraining and agent capabilities, and forms part of a flurry of Chinese model launches that shift competition from raw scale to systems and cost efficiency.
China’s AI New-Year Sprint Exposes a New Scarcity: Token Inflation and Rising Compute Prices
China’s major tech firms used the 2026 Lunar New Year to launch a wave of multimodal AI models, precipitating a rapid rise in token-based inference demand. The surge is pushing cloud prices up, giving model vendors pricing leverage while exposing supply, governance and geopolitical risks.
China Pulls the Brakes on the Spring Festival ‘Red Envelope’ Arms Race
China’s market regulator summoned seven major internet platforms and released new anti‑monopoly compliance guidelines after a wave of large Spring Festival cash‑giveaway campaigns. Regulators warned against below‑cost subsidies, exclusive dealing and algorithmic collusion, signalling tighter scrutiny of promotional tactics and AI‑driven user acquisition.
Meituan’s High-Stakes Gamble: Heavy Losses, a Fresh‑Food Buy and an AI Push to Hold the Delivery Crown
Meituan disclosed a dramatic shift to an estimated 2025 net loss of RMB 233–243 billion, yet has chosen to intensify strategic investments—buying Dingdong’s China fresh‑food business and upgrading its AI assistant—to protect its instant retail and delivery moat. The move underscores a broader industry turning point from subsidy‑led growth to a capital‑and‑efficiency contest over logistics, AI and fulfilment.
China’s Market Watchdog Summons Seven Tech Giants to Curb ‘Involution’ in Platform Promotions
China’s market regulator summoned seven leading platforms to demand stricter compliance with competition, pricing and consumer protection laws and to curb “involution” — cutthroat promotional tactics that distort markets. The meeting signals intensified oversight of everyday platform marketing as Beijing seeks to stabilise the platform economy while preserving innovation.
Alibaba’s Qianwen Extends Free‑order Blitz, Links Up with Damai and Fliggy to Sell Tickets via AI
Alibaba’s Qianwen extended its free‑order promotion and added Damai and Fliggy integrations to let users buy event and travel tickets via AI. The campaign is part of a broader strategy to convert AI convenience into consumer lock‑in across Alibaba’s ecosystem, with strong uptake in lower‑tier cities but questions about costs and regulatory scrutiny.
Hong Kong Stocks Slide as Metals Rout Drags on Hang Seng; Tech Holds Up Relatively Better
Hong Kong equities retreated ahead of the Lunar New Year, with the Hang Seng down 1.72% as metals and mining stocks led losses. Tech names proved more resilient, while investors await U.S. inflation data and post‑holiday Chinese activity for direction.