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• This comes after BABA Chairman Joe Tsai and CEO Eddie Wu spent a combined HK$202 million to buy the company’s shares.
• Alibaba plans to use the proceeds to develop its full-stack AI capabilities, including chips, computing infrastructure and AI models.
• Last week, Alibaba posted a 45% increase in AI Cloud and Compute Services revenue for the first quarter.

Alibaba Group (BABA) founder Jack Ma has reportedly purchased more than HK$600 million ($76.6 million) of the company’s Hong Kong-listed shares, just days after the tech behemoth’s HK$80 billion share placement.

This follows Chairman Joe Tsai and CEO Eddie Wu spending a combined HK$202 million to buy the company’s shares. Tsai purchased around HK$80 million of shares on Monday and another HK$82 million on Tuesday, while Wu invested roughly HK$40 million.

BABA shares edged 0.2% higher in pre-market trading on Tuesday.

Jack Ma Adds To Alibaba Insider Buying

Ma’s purchase shows “strong confidence for Alibaba to realize its AI ambitions and capture the long-term growth opportunities ahead”, according to a report by the South China Morning Post, citing a source.

Ma, who co-founded Alibaba in 1999, had also reportedly made a share purchase of more than $50 million in 2023.

The purchases followed Alibaba’s HK$80 billion share placement. Alibaba sold 710 million new shares at HK$112.70 each, with institutional demand reportedly reaching nearly three times the offering size.

Alibaba plans to invest all the proceeds in its full-stack AI capabilities, including chips, computing infrastructure and AI models.

BABA’s AI Growth Surges

Last week, Alibaba posted a 45% increase in AI Cloud and Compute Services revenue for the first quarter. AI-related product revenue also grew by triple digits for the 12th consecutive quarter. The company has said it expects AI products to eventually generate more than half of external cloud revenue and is targeting over $100 billion in combined AI and cloud revenue during the next five years.

However, ‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry remains unconvinced. On Sunday, Burry said he would not return to Alibaba after the company announced a share issuance and would reconsider the stock only if it fell by about half.

BABA Investors Turn ‘Extremely Bullish’

Retail sentiment surrounding BABA on Stocktwits remained ‘extremely bullish’ over the past 24 hours, amid ‘extremely high’ message volumes.

One user said that the “new shares are 3X oversubscribed.”

BABA shares are down 24% so far this year.

Conversion: HK$1 = $0.13<

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