Alibaba Cloud statistics & facts

Alibaba Cloud at a glance

Alibaba Cloud has become the fastest-growing part of Alibaba Group. The Cloud Intelligence Group, which runs the cloud business, generated revenue of RMB158.1 billion (US$22.9 billion) in the fiscal year to March 2026, up 34 percent, according to Alibaba annual results. Growth has accelerated for nine quarters in a row, from 3 percent in early 2024 to 45 percent in the June 2026 quarter, driven by demand for artificial intelligence computing. Alibaba Cloud is also the largest cloud infrastructure provider in mainland China, with a 37 percent market share in the fourth quarter of 2025 according to the research firm Omdia.

This report covers Alibaba Cloud revenue by quarter and year, its profitability, the role of AI, the Qwen family of AI models, Alibaba spending on data centres and the cloud market in China. It is part of our coverage of Alibaba statistics and facts.

Quarterly revenue: from 3 to 45 percent growth

For most of 2023 and early 2024, Alibaba Cloud barely grew. Revenue rose just 2 to 6 percent a year between the June 2023 and June 2024 quarters. Growth then picked up quarter after quarter: 7 percent in September 2024, 13 percent in December 2024, 18 percent in March 2025, 26 percent in June 2025, 34 percent in September 2025, 36 percent in December 2025 and 38 percent in March 2026.

Accelerating: Quarterly cloud revenue rose from RMB25.6 billion in March 2024 to RMB41.6 billion in March 2026.

In the June 2026 quarter, under the new segment structure that includes the T-Head chip business, AI Cloud and Compute Services revenue reached RMB48.4 billion, up 45 percent from a restated RMB33.4 billion a year earlier. Revenue from external customers, which excludes services sold to other Alibaba businesses, also grew 45 percent.

Nine quarters of acceleration: Growth rose every quarter from 3 percent in March 2024 to 45 percent in June 2026.

Annual cloud revenue

On a full-year basis, cloud revenue grew 3 percent to RMB106.4 billion in FY2024, 11 percent to RMB118.0 billion in FY2025 and 34 percent to RMB158.1 billion in FY2026. Revenue from external customers grew 33 percent in FY2026. Cloud now accounts for about 15 percent of Alibaba total revenue, up from about 11 percent in FY2024.

Revenue and profit up a third: Cloud revenue rose 34 percent and adjusted EBITA 35 percent in FY2026.

Profitability

Alibaba Cloud has become steadily more profitable. Adjusted EBITA, Alibaba preferred profit measure, rose from RMB0.4 billion in the June 2023 quarter to RMB3.8 billion in the March 2026 quarter. The adjusted EBITA margin climbed from 1.5 percent to around 9 percent over the same period and has stayed close to that level even as the company invests heavily. In the June 2026 quarter, AI Cloud and Compute Services adjusted EBITA more than doubled to RMB5.6 billion, and the chief financial officer put the margin at 12 percent.

Ten times more profit: Quarterly adjusted EBITA rose from RMB0.4 billion to RMB3.8 billion in under three years.

AI revenue and the Qwen models

Artificial intelligence is the main driver of the turnaround. Alibaba has reported triple-digit growth in AI-related product revenue for twelve consecutive quarters up to June 2026. In the March 2026 quarter, revenue from AI-related products reached RMB9.0 billion, and the chief executive Eddie Wu said AI accounted for about 30 percent of external cloud revenue. In the June 2026 quarter, AI-related revenue rose to RMB12.4 billion.

Alibaba also develops the Qwen family of large language models, many of which it releases as open-weight models that developers can download and adapt. According to Alibaba, developers had built more than 180,000 derivative models on Hugging Face by October 2025, more than double the next model family, and Qwen models had passed 1 billion cumulative downloads by January 2026. The consumer Qwen app, launched in public beta in November 2025, reached more than 300 million monthly active users across platforms by February 2026, according to the company. For comparison with other AI tools, see our report on generative AI users worldwide.

Spending on AI infrastructure

Alibaba is spending heavily to meet demand. In February 2025 it announced plans to invest at least RMB380 billion in cloud computing and AI infrastructure over three years, and at its Apsara Conference in September 2025 it said it would invest beyond that amount, without giving a new figure. Group capital expenditure, most of which goes to data centres and servers, rose from RMB32.1 billion in FY2024 to RMB86.0 billion in FY2025 and RMB126.1 billion in FY2026.

A record quarter: Capex reached RMB67.7 billion in the June 2026 quarter, almost ten times the level of June 2023.

The June 2026 quarter set a record, with capital expenditure of RMB67.7 billion, up 75 percent year on year. Over the four quarters to June 2026, Alibaba spent about RMB155 billion. This spending is the main reason Alibaba free cash flow turned negative in FY2026, as explained in our report on Alibaba revenue and financial results.

The China cloud market

Spending on cloud infrastructure services in mainland China reached US$14.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 26 percent year on year, according to Omdia. Alibaba Cloud held a 37 percent share, more than twice that of Huawei Cloud at 17 percent, with Tencent Cloud at about 10 percent. Together the three largest providers accounted for close to two-thirds of the market. Omdia forecasts growth of 26 percent for 2026, driven by AI.

Alibaba leads China: With 37 percent of the market, Alibaba Cloud is larger than Huawei and Tencent combined.

The China market has grown quickly over the past two years. Quarterly spending rose from US$9.2 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to US$14.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Canalys and Omdia. Alibaba share has stayed between 33 and 37 percent throughout. Year-on-year growth in the market accelerated from 8 percent in the second quarter of 2024 to 26 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Up 60 percent in under two years: China cloud spending rose from US$9.2 billion to US$14.7 billion a quarter.

Outside China, Alibaba Cloud is a much smaller player. The global cloud infrastructure market reached US$143.4 billion in the second quarter of 2026, according to Synergy Research Group, led by Amazon with 28 percent, Microsoft with 20 percent and Google with 15 percent. Our report on the global cloud market covers the leaders, and our AI market size and Nvidia statistics reports cover the wider AI boom.

Outlook

Alibaba has positioned AI and cloud as its main growth engine, with its chief executive describing the group as being in an investment phase. The key questions are whether demand for AI computing in China remains strong enough to justify record spending, and whether access to advanced chips allows Alibaba to keep expanding capacity. The cloud business now matters as much to investors as the core Taobao and Tmall marketplaces, and its results are watched alongside the international commerce unit.

Alibaba Cloud in numbers

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