Alibaba ( (BABA) ) has been popular among investors this week. Here is a recap of the key news on this stock.
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Alibaba is heading into 2026 with clear momentum in its cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) businesses, even as its traditional e-commerce arm faces a tougher macro backdrop in China. The company reported total revenue growth of about 15% year-over-year (excluding divested units Sun Art and Intime), powered by a 10% rise in China e-commerce customer management revenue and a standout 34% jump in Alibaba Cloud revenue. AI is at the center of this story: AI-related cloud products have logged triple-digit growth for nine consecutive quarters, and Alibaba’s Qwen AI models have been downloaded more than 600 million times, surpassing Meta’s Llama in global open-model usage, particularly for multilingual tasks. The launch of the Qwen personal AI assistant app, which crossed 10 million downloads in its first week of public beta, highlights Alibaba’s strategy to embed AI deeply across both consumer and enterprise services.
Beyond AI, Alibaba is leaning into fast delivery and local services, with its quick commerce business growing revenue by 60% on the back of better unit economics and higher average order values. User engagement across its ecosystem remains strong: Amap, its mapping service, hit a record 360 million daily active users, and Taobao’s monthly active base continues to expand. However, the investment required to build this future is hitting today’s profit and cash metrics. Adjusted EBITA plunged 78%, GAAP net income fell 53%, operating cash flow dropped by RMB 21.3 billion year-over-year to RMB 10.1 billion, and free cash flow swung to an outflow of RMB 21.8 billion, largely due to heavy spending on quick commerce and AI-plus-cloud infrastructure. With the core e-commerce business stabilizing but Chinese consumer demand still cautious, Alibaba’s near term will likely be defined by squeezed margins and high capex. Even so, Wall Street remains bullish: the stock carries a Strong Buy consensus rating from analysts, with an average price target of $201.33, implying roughly 35% upside from current levels as investors bet that today’s aggressive AI and cloud investments will translate into stronger earnings power in 2026 and beyond.