Alibaba plans to invest $53 billion on AI infrastructure over the next three years

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. pledged to invest more than 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) on AI infrastructure such as data centers over the next three years, a major commitment that underscores the e-commerce pioneer’s ambitions of becoming a leader in artificial intelligence.

The internet company co-founded by Jack Ma plans to spend more on its AI and cloud computing network than it has over the past decade. Alibaba envisions becoming a key partner to companies developing and applying AI to the real world as models evolve and need increasing amounts of computing power, the company said on its official blog.

Alibaba is righting a business knocked off-kilter by a government clampdown that began in 2020, refocusing its ambitions on e-commerce and AI. Last week, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu declared that Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI, was now its primary objective, joining a race so far led by the likes of OpenAI and big US firms from Microsoft Corp. to Alphabet Inc.