While Alibaba was early in the AI model game, it was the release of a research paper from Chinese firm DeepSeek this year that forced all eyes to focus on what was going on in China. DeepSeek claimed its AI model was trained at a fraction of the cost of leading AI players and on less-advanced Nvidia chips, leading to a global stock sell-off.
"DeepSeek was a wake up call that China tech is not just sitting idle on AI and this indirectly benefits Alibaba as the appetite for AI is clear in China," Wedbush Securities' Ives said.