Alibaba plans to raise ~$10B in a follow-on share offering to fund AI investments; sources: it plans to offer 710M shares at a 3.6% discount to Friday's close (Reuters)

Alibaba plans to raise $10.2 billion through a share placement in Hong Kong to fund artificial intelligence-related development. The Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing company intends to sell 710 million ordinary shares at HK$112.70 each, representing a 3.6% discount to its recent closing price, according to Reuters.

The company will use all of the net proceeds to invest in its "full stack" AI capabilities, including semiconductors, computing infrastructure, and the development and deployment of artificial intelligence models. According to Investing.com, this would be the largest primary follow-on offering ever undertaken by a Hong Kong-listed company and the world's third-largest primary follow-on share sale this year.

Alibaba recently reported nearly $40 billion in revenue in its most recent quarter, a 9% year-on-year increase, boosted by the global AI frenzy driving demand for its products, as per Free Malaysia Today. The company's AI investments have garnered strong interest from investors, including sovereign wealth funds, and it increased the offering's size after it became oversubscribed. Morgan Stanley, HSBC Holdings, UBS Group, and China International Capital Corp are acting as joint sponsors for the placement.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Investing.com, Free Malaysia Today, The Business Times - Companies & Markets — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.