Alibaba is going all out for instant retail and AI

Alibaba is throwing itself into the battle for one-hour delivery and aims to deliver China’s alternative to ChatGPT. However, the company acknowledges that these major investments caused profits to plummet last quarter.

Instant retail sets the tone

Alibaba performed better than expected in the September quarter. Revenue rose 5% to 247.8 billion yuan (34.8 billion euros), thanks in part to strong growth in the instant delivery market and the cloud division, as the group’s quarterly figures point out. Nevertheless, profits are shrinking significantly due to the associated heavy investments. Operating profit tumbled 85% to 5.4 billion yuan (0.75 billion euros).