Alibaba launches $10 billion Hong Kong share placement to fund AI spending

BusinessInternationalAlibaba launches $10 billion Hong Kong share placement to fund AI spendingBy Reuters -Aug 23, 2026Add ARY News on GoogleFILE PHOTO: People visit an Alibaba booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China July 26, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo/File PhotoAAResizeChina’s Alibaba on Sunday launched a HK$80-billion ($10.2 billion) ​share placement to fund artificial intelligence-related development. A deal by the Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing giant would ‌mark the largest-ever primary follow-on offering by a Hong Kong-listed company. It would rank as the world’s third-largest primary follow-on share sale this year after offerings from Alphabet and Intel. The company said it intends to use 100% of the net proceeds from the placement to invest in ​its “full stack” AI capabilities, a category that includes chips, infrastructure and the development and deployment of AI models. A ​term sheet reviewed by Reuters showed Alibaba planned to sell 710 million ordinary shares at ⁠HK$112.70 a share. That represented a 3.6% discount to its most recent closing price. In its announcement for the $10.2 billion ​share placement, Alibaba did not reveal additional details on its investment plans by category of its planned AI-related investment. It did ​not comment beyond its regulatory disclosure. Last week, Alibaba reported its results for the April-to-June quarter, saying it had already spent nearly half of its three-year capex investment plan. It said its expected payback on AI-Alibaba increased the size of the offering after the deal was oversubscribed, ​the people familiar with the ​matter said. Morgan Stanley, HSBC, UBS ⁠and CICC are serving as joint bookrunners of the Alibaba offering, said one of the sources and a third person with knowledge of the matter. The banks did not ​immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The share placement was not registered under ​U.S. securities laws ⁠as an offshore transact...