> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.businessbagel.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Alibaba raised $10 billion for its AI push in Hong Kong’s biggest share sale in five years - URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/alibaba-hk80-billion-share-placement-ai-spending/ - Published: 2026-08-27T03:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-27T03:00:00.000Z - Description: Hong Kong's largest follow-on share sale sent Alibaba's stock down 8.5% in a day, and its chairman, its chief executive and Jack Ma all bought in afterwards. - Author: Christian Maidman - Tags: Markets, Business Bagel News Alibaba has just run the largest follow-on share sale Hong Kong has seen. It sold 710 million new shares at HK$112.70 each, raising HK$80 billion, or about $10.2 billion, and says all of the net proceeds go into its own artificial intelligence infrastructure. New shares are not free money. Every one issued makes the shares already in circulation a slightly smaller claim on the same company, which is why a record raise can knock the price down on the day it lands. Alibaba's stock fell 8.5% on Monday, its worst day since early 2025\. The offer itself was not short of buyers: institutions asked for almost three times what was available, at a price 3.6% below Friday's close in New York. ## The bill the raise goes towards What it raised is a top-up on a much larger commitment. Alibaba has pledged more than 380 billion yuan, about $56.5 billion, over three years on AI, covering chips, data centres and the Qwen model family that now sits behind its services. Capital spending in the June quarter alone came to nearly $10 billion. Set against that, the money raised this week buys roughly one more quarter of building. The revenue is arriving faster than the explanation of it. Annualised revenue from AI products is expected to approach $10 billion this quarter, up from around $7.3 billion in the April to June period, and executives say the whole investment should be recouped within three years. Cloud is growing in double digits and AI revenue in triple digits, while the online retail business that pays for it is dealing with weak Chinese consumer spending and eroding margins. ## The founders bought the dip themselves Chairman Joe Tsai picked up about HK$80 million of shares on the Monday and chief executive Eddie Wu about HK$40 million, both disclosed in filings to the Hong Kong exchange. Co-founder Jack Ma followed later in the week with more than HK$600 million of his own, first reported by the South China Morning Post, which Alibaba owns. The stock rose as much as 3.2% on Wednesday. Not everyone was reassured. Michael Burry, the investor from The Big Short, wrote that he cannot bless the new issuance and that Alibaba's return on capital will keep falling. He had planned to move most of his position back from JD.com and says he no longer intends to, and that the price would have to halve before he looks again. Alibaba is locked out of issuing any more shares for 90 days, and the placement itself was set to close on 26 August.