Is Alibaba Cloud's Growing Partner Base a Catalyst for Future Returns?
BABA is not slowing down and expanding its AI footprint rapidly. It recently formed a strategic partnership with smartphone maker HONOR, which marked the first time for Alibaba's proprietary AI agents to be directly integrated into mobile devices. The company's first hybrid reasoning family Qwen3 is gaining rapid traction, with companies, such as NVIDIA, AMD and MediaTek deploying Qwen3 on their frameworks.
Alibaba also announced that it will invest more than $60 million in the next fiscal year to strengthen its partner ecosystem and accelerate AI innovation. The investment is underscored by new and expanded partnerships with leading technology providers worldwide. They include Dify, Squirro, PingCAP, Atos, Crayon, DXC Technology, Bespin Global Indonesia and Electrum Cloud. The investment will go toward collaborative marketing campaigns, incentive rebate programs and other activities to benefit both Alibaba Cloud and its partners. This move comes at a time when Alibaba Cloud hopes to gain more exposure overseas.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group generated RMB 30.1 billion ($4.15 billion) in revenues, up 18% year over year, contributing around 12.7% of total revenues. This was driven by the increasing adoption of AI-related products. As Alibaba Cloud strengthens its global partner ecosystem, the efforts are expected to drive higher cloud adoption and AI service consumption, paving the way for sustained revenue growth in the coming quarters.
Alibaba Cloud Faces Stiff Competition From Tech Giants
Alibaba Cloud is under pressure to get ahead in the AI race, with companies like Amazon AMZN and Microsoft MSFT forming partnerships with tech behemoths to hold their lead.
Amazon's AWS and Meta Platforms recently teamed up to support AI startups by making Meta's Llama 3 models more accessible through AWS services, aiming to accelerate AI innovation and adoption across industries. Amazon also announced a partnership with HUMAIN to invest $5 billion-plus to accelerate AI innovation in Saudi Arabia and globally.
Microsoft and Pearson have announced a multiyear partnership to integrate Microsoft Azure OpenAI technologies into Pearson's education products, aiming to transform learning and workforce readiness through AI. Microsoft has also strengthened its partnership with the Kuwait government by announcing plans to establish an AI-powered Azure cloud region.
BABA's Share Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
BABA shares have gained 41.9% in the year-to-date (YTD) period, outperforming the Zacks Internet – Commerce industry and the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector's growth of 10.5% and 5.8%, respectively.
BABA's YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, BABA stock is currently trading at a forward 12-month Price/Earnings ratio of 13.07X compared with the industry's 26.17X. BABA has a Value Score of C.
BABA Valuation
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $2.13 per share, which has been revised downward by 14.1% over the past 30 days, indicating a 5.75% year-over-year decline.
Alibaba currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Zacks' Research Chief Names "Stock Most Likely to Double"
Our team of experts has just released the 5 stocks with the greatest probability of gaining +100% or more in the coming months. Of those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian highlights the one stock set to climb highest.
This top pick is a little-known satellite-based communications firm. Space is projected to become a trillion dollar industry, and this company's customer base is growing fast. Analysts have forecasted a major revenue breakout in 2025. Of course, all our elite picks aren't winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks' Stocks Set to Double like Hims & Hers Health, which shot up +209%.
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