Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holdings jumped 18.84% Monday after a stronger-than-expected net income in the June quarter, driven by its cloud-computing unit and a revival of e-commerce activity.
Revenue reached 247.65 billion yuan ($34.6 billion), slightly below the 252.9 billion yuan expected, while net income soared 78% year-on-year to 43.11 billion yuan, boosted by investment gains and the sale of Turkish e-commerce firm Trendyol. Excluding these gains, net income would have fallen 18%, reflecting heavy investments in instant commerce.
Alibaba’s cloud division stood out, posting 33.4 billion yuan in revenue, up 26% year-on-year. AI-related product revenue maintained triple-digit growth for the eighth consecutive quarter, and adjusted EBITA rose 26%. The company is also developing a new AI chip to support cloud growth.
In e-commerce, revenue grew 10% to 19.6 billion yuan, while adjusted earnings dropped 21% due to investments in quick commerce, delivering certain products within an hour. Alibaba’s quick commerce division generated 14.8 billion yuan ($2 billion), up 12% YoY, with management forecasting 1 trillion yuan in annualized incremental GMV over three years.
Investors remain optimistic as cloud and international e-commerce performance offset domestic competition pressures from rivals like Meituan and JD.com.