China's Alibaba to invest $50 bn in AI, cloud computing

BEIJING: Chinese tech giant Alibaba said Monday it will spend more than $50 billion on artificial intelligence and cloud computing over the next three years, a week after co-founder Jack Ma was seen meeting President Xi Jinping. Investors have piled into Chinese technology stocks since the start of the year, with Alibaba -- which runs some of the country's biggest online shopping platforms -- seeing its shares soar to three-year highs. The gains have been boosted since the Hangzhou-based firm announced robust sales growth last week, adding to signs that the sector is staging a comeback from years of gloom sparked by a government crackdown. Alibaba plans to "invest at least 380 billion yuan over the next three years to advance its cloud computing and AI infrastructure", a company statement said.