The U.S.
decision last month to ban the export to China of more chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) has created major uncertainties for the country’s big tech companies.
Thursday’s announcement came alongside in-line second-quarter revenue from the Chinese e-commerce group, which in March had unveiled plans to carve out the cloud business as part of the biggest restructuring in its 24-year history.
The company also put on hold plans for an initial public offering of its Freshippo groceries business but said it would prepare external fundraising for its international digital commerce group arm…
Analysts had in March estimated the cloud division could be worth between $41-60 billion but had warned that its listing could attract scrutiny from both Chinese and overseas regulators due to the reams of data it manages.
In September, Alibaba’s former group CEO Daniel Zhang abruptly quit just two months after concentrating his focus on cloud computing.
The company then appointed Eddie Wu, one of Alibaba Group’s co-founders and long-time lieutenant of former chief Jack MaJoseph…
“Alibaba will not pursue a full spin-off of Cloud Intelligence Group in light of uncertainties created by recent U.S.
export restrictions on advanced computing chips,” Tsai told analysts on a post-earnings call.
Instead the group would focus on growing the cloud business and providing investment for its AI drivers, he said.
The cloud unit will continue to maintain its independent operation, Wu added….
