Alibaba targets 20 GW of global data-center capacity by 2032

Alibaba Group plans to expand the data centers operated by its cloud business worldwide to more than 20 gigawatts of capacity by 2032, as booming demand for artificial intelligence drives the Chinese technology giant to step up investment in computing infrastructure.

Speaking at Alibaba Cloud's annual Apsara Conference, Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba, said customer demand for AI computing remains "very strong" and the company would go all-in on building the infrastructure needed to support increasingly powerful AI models and applications.

The target offers a rare glimpse into the scale of Alibaba's longer-term AI ambitions, as Chinese technology companies race to secure computing capacity and reduce reliance on foreign technology amid US restrictions on exports of advanced AI chips to China.

Alibaba's chip unit T-Head also unveiled the Zhenwu V900 on Tuesday, a new generation of domestically developed AI processor whose computing performance is three times that of its Zhenwu M890 predecessor.

Annual shipments of T-Head's AI chips are expected to increase significantly, according to information released at the conference.

The announcements underscore Alibaba's push to build more of the technology stack underpinning AI itself, spanning chips and cloud computing infrastructure to foundation models, model services and AI agents.

Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai said AI development had entered a new phase, moving beyond breakthroughs at the technological frontier toward creating value at scale in real-world applications.

AI is increasingly being deployed in areas including autonomous driving, embodied intelligence and world models, Tsai said, while its adoption across industries is beginning to lift productivity.

Alibaba is continuing to invest heavily in what Tsai described as a full-stack AI system, designed to connect the development of underlying technologies with their deployment across industries.

The architecture covers chips, cloud infrastructure, AI models, model services and agent-based applications, allowing the company to develop technology at the hardware level while also turning it into products and services for businesses.

The strategy places Alibaba among Chinese technology companies seeking tighter control over the increasingly strategic computing infrastructure behind AI.