Aug 20 (Reuters) – China’s Alibaba on Thursday reported a 9% rise in quarterly revenue, as strong demand for AI services fueled growth in its cloud business, while an extended “618” shopping festival boosted its core e-commerce unit.
As businesses increasingly deploy artificial intelligence applications, demand for the cloud computing power needed to train and run those systems has surged, benefiting China’s largest technology companies.
Alibaba, the country’s biggest cloud services provider, has stepped up investment in AI infrastructure, proprietary models and applications, positioning the technology as a key growth driver for its cloud and consumer businesses.
The company’s AI cloud and compute services revenue rose 45% to 48.44 billion yuan in the quarter.
Alibaba’s capital expenditures rose 75% to 67.68 billion yuan in the quarter ended June 30, as it continued to invest in AI infrastructure to meet strong customer demand.
The company reported revenue of 268.95 billion yuan ($40.02 billion) in the first quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 268.88 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.
($1 = 6.7207 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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