Alibaba's Revenue Jumps 9% as AI Cloud Growth Hits 45%—But a Profit Plunge Sends Shares Lower

In brief Alibaba's fiscal first-quarter revenue rose 9% year-over-year to 268.95 billion yuan ($40 billion), narrowly beating the 268.88 billion yuan analyst estimate, while net income fell 75% to RMB 10.44billion ($1.6 billion). Alibaba Cloud's external revenue growth accelerated to 45%, and AI-related product revenue logged its 12th straight quarter of triple-digit growth, reaching 12.38 billion yuan ($1.82 billion).

Capital expenditure jumped 75% to 67.7 billion yuan ($10 billion), pushing free cash flow to a $6.6 billion outflow; U.S.-listed shares fell as much as 5% before paring the drop to roughly 3.5%. Chinese tech titan Alibaba reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of 268.95 billion yuan, roughly $40 billion, on Thursday, up 9% year-over-year and slightly ahead of the 268.88 billion yuan analysts expected. It's the fastest quarterly growth rate the company has posted in roughly three years.

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