Alibaba (BABA) officially rolled out Wan3.0, its latest AI video generation model, which can generate 30-second videos from documents, spreadsheets, slides, and web pages. Alibaba says the public beta (live since August 6) has already been used in short drama and film production, advertising, tourism promotion, and music videos.
Wan3.0 arrived one day after Alibaba announced a $10.2 billion share sale, the largest primary follow-on offering ever by a Hong Kong-listed company, priced at an 8.4% discount to Friday’s close. (The stock fell as much as 10.5% on Monday before paring losses.) The proceeds are earmarked for chips, AI infrastructure, and models, and demand was real. The book drew roughly $28 billion in orders, with about 40% allocated to long-only and sovereign investors.
The share sale landed less than a week after Alibaba reported a 75% drop in quarterly profit, driven by AI capital expenditure that rose 75% to 67.68 billion yuan in a single quarter. CEO Eddie Wu told analysts that Alibaba has already spent half of its 380 billion yuan ($56.4 billion) AI budget for 2026 through 2029, that he expects AI capex to break even within three years at current gross margins, and that the company plans to replace commercially procured chips with its own silicon to recover margin.
Put the week in sequence: a 75% profit decline caused by AI spending, then a $10 billion dilution priced at a discount to fund more AI spending, then a new model shipped anyway. Investors offered $28 billion for a $10.2 billion sale.
On Sunday I wrote that everyone in the AI race keeps going because everyone is certain everyone else will keep going. The standard argument against slowing down in Washington ends with the words “China won’t stop.” Um…
Comments
Log in or sign up to join the conversation.