{"text":[[{"start":9.25,"text":"China’s ecommerce and cloud group Alibaba is planning to raise HK$80bn ($10.2bn) from a share placement, as it steps up capital expenditure to compete with the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies. "}],[{"start":22.7,"text":"Alibaba said it would use the full proceeds of the offering for AI investments, capitalising on strong sentiment in China’s stock markets that has pushed valuations of tech companies to new highs."}],[{"start":34.35,"text":"“Alibaba intends to use 100 per cent of the net proceeds from the equity placement to invest in its full-stack AI capabilities, including to expand and enhance its AI infrastructure,” the company said."}],[{"start":45.45,"text":"The placement, which will be offered to non-US investors, came as Alibaba reported a free cash outflow of $6.6bn in the June quarter and a 75 per cent fall in net profit to about $1.5bn as it increases spending on AI."}],[{"start":62.75,"text":"AI investment has prompted a surge in Chinese capital market activity this year, with a frenzy in the sector boosting valuations to extreme levels."}],[{"start":72.45,"text":"Investor excitement was fuelled by the launch last month of Moonshot’s Kimi K3 — China’s largest AI model to date — and the listing of homegrown chipmaker CXMT."}],[{"start":84.4,"text":"Shares in the memory chip company, which raised $8.6bn in its offering, surged 466 per cent on listing. "}],[{"start":93,"text":"Humanoid robotics group Unitree last week raised $900mn, with its shares jumping more than 600 per cent on their trading debut after attracting demand of more than 5,500 times the available allotment for retail investors."}],[{"start":108.5,"text":"Alibaba’s share placement comes just weeks after the Hangzhou-based company released its latest AI model, Qwen 3.8-Max, which early benchmarking suggests is strong in areas such as “agentic coding”, where bots write and fix code with only high-level human direction."}],[{"start":124.9,"text":"The company’s push into AI comes as it faces increasing regulatory hurdles in the US."}],[{"start":130.20000000000002,"text":"The Pentagon in June restored Alibaba, along with internet platform Baidu and electric vehicle maker BYD, to a blacklist of Chinese companies deemed to pose a national security risk to the US because of alleged connections to the People’s Liberation Army."}],[{"start":146.15,"text":"Alibaba has asked a US court to overturn the Pentagon order, saying that it has no ties to the PLA and does not engage in “military fusion”, in which Chinese civilian industries and the state-owned defence sector work together. "}],[{"start":160.45000000000002,"text":"China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump are scheduled to meet in the US next week in their second summit this year, at which they are expected to discuss topics such as export controls and restrictions on technology companies."}],[{"start":186.00000000000003,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787476464_4044.mp3"}