China’s Alibaba launches international data centre push

Alibaba, a leading Chinese technology company, has announced plans to expand its presence in international data centres, targeting markets in Europe, the Middle East, and select Asian nations. The company, a frontrunner in China's artificial intelligence industry with its popular Qwen model, intends to establish its first cloud regions in Turkey, Finland, and the Netherlands, while also expanding data centre capabilities in Malaysia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, France, and Hong Kong over the next year.

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu revealed the company's ambition to train an AI model with five to 10 trillion parameters, making it several times larger than the current largest Chinese model. Alibaba aims to secure over 20 gigawatts of global data centre capacity by 2032. The company also unveiled a new AI chip, Zhenwu V900, which promises three times the performance of its predecessor, Zhenwu M890, and claims to be the most powerful AI chip in China today.

With the U.S. placing export controls on advanced chips required for cutting-edge AI, Beijing's drive for technological self-sufficiency has spurred Chinese tech firms to increasingly rely on domestic chips as substitutes for foreign products.