Cloud Anchor: Alibaba Revenue Grows 3% Driven by AI Infrastructure

Infrastructure services are saving the balance sheets of traditional retailers. On May 13, 2026, Alibaba Group reported its first-quarter results. Despite total revenue growing by only 3% and slightly missing Wall Street expectations, the company's stock did not collapse.

The secret to this resilience lies in deep diversification. The main driver compensating for the stagnation in consumer demand was the cloud division and the sale of B2B access to AI models (including the recent Qwen integration). This is a prime example of how Asian Big Tech is restructuring its financial flows, mirroring Amazon's path: when retail slows down, renting out servers and algorithms comes to the rescue. AI has definitively become not just an experimental technology for Alibaba, but a key load-bearing structure of the corporate budget.

Source: Reuters / Alibaba Group