Alibaba plans US$10 billion Hong Kong share placement to fund AI spending
It says the deal would mark the largest primary follow-on offering by a Hong Kong-listed company
China's Alibaba plans to sell HK$80 billion, or US$10.2 billion, in a share placement to fund its artificial intelligence (AI) development. This would be the largest primary follow-on offering by a Hong Kong-listed company, and the third-largest worldwide in 2023 after Alphabet and Intel. Alibaba intends to invest the entire net proceeds from the offering into its "full stack" AI capabilities, which encompass chips, infrastructure, and the development and deployment of AI models.
The company sold 710 million ordinary shares at HK$112.70 each, representing a 3.6 percent discount to its recent closing price. The term sheet for the US$10.2 billion offering was reviewed by Reuters, but details on the specific AI-related investments were not disclosed. Alibaba has already spent nearly half of its three-year capital expenditure plan, and expects a payback period for its AI-related investments to shorten from three years to 2.5 years due to growing demand.
The share offering has attracted strong interest from investors, including sovereign wealth funds. Morgan Stanley, HSBC, UBS, and CICC are serving as joint bookrunners for the placement.
Written by urgent.news from The Business Times - Companies & Markets's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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