Alibaba unveils AI chip to drive 20GW of data centres by 2032

Alibaba Group Holding has introduced its latest AI chip, the Zhenwu V900, designed to power data centers and compete with Nvidia. The ecommerce giant set a target of 20 gigawatts of data center capacity by 2032, driven by a surge in demand for AI. Alibaba's commitment to AI spending exceeds US$53 billion over three years, with the company recently raising US$10.2 billion in a Hong Kong share offering.

The CEO, Eddie Wu, expects the Zhenwu V900 chip, which triples the performance of its predecessor, to be combined in clusters of up to 500,000 units for training frontier models. Alibaba also plans to develop a model with 5 to 10 trillion parameters, far surpassing current common models, to handle longer and more complex tasks. The company's AI push aligns with recent AI stock rallies driven by Meta Platforms Inc.'s new personal agent, while US AI leaders will discuss the topic at an upcoming summit.