Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding saw profit surge 239 per cent cent in the December quarter to beat analysts’ estimates, as the company’s cloud computing services unit posted strong growth.
“This quarter’s results demonstrated substantial progress in our ‘user first, AI-driven’ strategies and the re-accelerated growth of our core businesses,” said Eddie Wu Yongming, chief executive of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.
In a conference call with analysts, Wu said Alibaba plans to “aggressively invest” in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years, which is expected to exceed what the group has spent over the past decade in building its capabilities related to these technologies.
“We are excited by the business opportunities being unlocked by this new technology cycle,” he said.
Alibaba’s shares in New York were up 11 per cent in pre-market trading after the company reported its latest financial results.
The Hangzhou-based tech conglomerate on Thursday reported that profit reached 48.9 billion yuan (US$6.7 billion) during the quarter, from 14.4 billion yuan a year ago, primarily on the back of “the increase in income from operations, mark-to-market changes from our equity investments, and the increase in share of results of equity method investees”, Alibaba said.
