Hot stock Alibaba has set its sights beyond AI to focus on artificial general intelligence, or AGI.
“We aim to continue to develop models that extend the boundaries of intelligence,” said Eddie Wu, Alibaba’s CEO, on Thursday. He called the pursuit of AGI the company’s “first and foremost goal.”
AGI is AI technology that mimics human intelligence to the point that it can achieve complex cognitive tasks involving logic and reasoning.
US-based companies working toward AGI include OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of major AI investor SoftBank, said earlier this month that he expects AGI to arrive “much earlier” than his late-2024 forecast of two to three years.
Wu’s statement came after Alibaba released blockbuster results on Thursday. For the quarter ending in December, Alibaba posted an 8% rise in revenue, to 280.2 billion yuan, or $38.6 billion. Profit rose to 48.9 billion yuan, beating analysts’ expectations.
“The pursuit of AGI can contribute immense business value,” said Wu, citing studies indicating that AGI — when achieved — could replace or achieve 80% of human capabilities. He said about 50% of global GDP comes from wages for blue- and white-collar work.
“If AGI can be achieved, then that could have a tremendous impact in terms of the restructuring industry around the world. It could have a significant influence on or even replace 50% of global GDP,” he said.
On Monday, Alibaba announced that it’s planning to invest at least 380 billion Chinese yuan, or $53 billion, in cloud computing and AI infrastructure over the next three years.
The company is in a crowded global race for AI supremacy.
Chinese tech companies have come into the spotlight following the dramatic rise of DeepSeek, a startup that released a new cost-competitive AI model last month.
The development stoked investor concerns about the massive investment in AI in the West and turned investor focus toward China’s tech companies, which have also been investing in AI.
US-listed Alibaba shares are up 70% this year to date, thanks to the boost from DeepSeek and after Alibaba announced that it was working with Apple to incorporate its AI into iPhones in China.
The upswing marks a major turnaround after Beijing’s yearslong Big Tech regulatory crackdown, when cofounder Jack Ma’s tech empire came under intense scrutiny.
Last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with the country’s top tech leaders — including Ma — in a sign that the country’s private sector is now back in favor again.
The market is viewing the meeting as a possible end of the crackdown. The Chinese government is seemingly working to revive an economy disrupted by a pandemic, regulatory crackdowns, and a real estate crisis, wrote Deutsche Bank analysts in a note last week following the event.
On Monday, Hong Kong-listed Alibaba shares were 2.5% lower by midday after recent gains and as Asian stocks were broadly pressured by sharp losses in the US markets on Friday.
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