Alibaba Slashes Cloud Prices Globally, But AI Ambitions Hindered by Export Controls
• Alibaba announced price reductions up to 59% for its international cloud services, extending aggressive China discounts to markets like the U.S., Singapore.
• Co-founder Joe Tsai said China lags the U.S. by 2 years in AI due to chip export restrictions affecting access to Nvidia GPUs.
• Tsai said export controls have short to medium-term impact on Alibaba's cloud and ability to provide high-end computing.
• Chinese firms seek alternatives like sourcing chips elsewhere and stockpiling available ones.
• Tsai stressed importance of developing large language models in-house to boost Alibaba's cloud business.