Sources: Jack Ma has returned to Alibaba's campuses after vanishing from the public eye during China's 2020 tech crackdown, influencing Alibaba's pivot to AI
Bloomberg :
Ant Group unit Robbyant showcases its first LLM-powered humanoid robot, the R1, at a conference in Shanghai, joining an intensifying effort by Chinese companies
Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co. showcased its first humanoid robot on Thursday, formally joining an intensifying effort …
Alibaba reports Q1 revenue up 7% YoY to ~$32.8B, below $33B est., and net income up 279% to ~$1.7B, partly due to its equity investment gains; BABA drops 5%+
Crypto Sentiment Shifts Cissy Zhou / Nikkei Asia : Alibaba's Q1 revenue falls short as international e-commerce falters Bill McColl / Yahoo Finance : Alibaba Misses Forecasts on Chinese Consumer Slowd...
Sources detail Alibaba's pivot to AI, quietly led by Jack Ma after ChatGPT's 2022 debut, but question whether it can establish a lead in the competitive AI race
Financial Times :
Alibaba pledges to invest more than $53B on AI infrastructure, including new data centers, over the next three years
- The e-commerce firm is angling to become an AI company — Firm to invest in AI infrastructure such as data centers … The internet company co-founded by Jack Ma plans …
Chinese President Xi meets with Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, and more, signaling Beijing's support for the long-marginalized sector
- Meeting signals a more supportive stance toward private firms — Xi promises relief from excessive fines, level playing field
Memo to commemorate Alibaba's 25th anniversary: Jack Ma says competition will make the company stronger and to trust “the power of market forces and innovation”
Jiahui Huang / Wall Street Journal :
Analysis: China's internet had 3.9M websites in 2023, down ~27% from 2017; Chinese-language websites are 1.3% of the global total, down 70% from 4.3% in 2013
and collective online memory — is disappearing in chunks. I searched Jack Ma, Xi Jinping in earlier years and the Great Sichuan Earthquake in 2008 and found, basically, nothing. https://www.nytimes.co...
In a lengthy memo on Alibaba's internal forum, Jack Ma voiced support for the company during its turbulent restructuring, saying Alibaba is on the right path
Bloomberg :
Sources: Jack Ma and Joe Tsai become Alibaba's largest shareholders after buying shares worth ~$50M and ~$150M, respectively, in Q4, together eclipsing SoftBank
Zhou Xin / South China Morning Post :