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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has been trimming its stakes in companies across entertainment, semiconductor, and retail sectors this month to fund investments in artificial intelligence and embodied intelligence technologies.
The Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and Jack Ma, acting in concert, reduced their shares in Huayi Brothers Media from 6% to less than 5% by selling over 29.5 million shares via block trading, as announced by Huayi Brothers on December 17.
Additionally, the company sold more than 12.5 million shares of ASR Microelectronics through block trading and centralized bidding, decreasing its ownership from approximately 15.4% to 12.4%, according to a statement released on December 17. These shares were sold at prices ranging from CNY73.42 to CNY99.46 (USD10.42 to USD14.12) each, totaling nearly CNY1.1 billion (USD150 million).
In the retail sector, investment funds affiliated with Alibaba sold 41.6 million shares of Red Star Macalline Group via centralized bidding, reducing their total stake from 7.3% to 6.4%. Following these transactions, stock exchange data revealed that Alibaba’s stake further declined to 5.7%.
On December 10, Meinian Onehealth Healthcare Holdings announced that Hangzhou Haoyue Enterprise Management, affiliated with Alibaba, intends to reduce its stake in the healthcare provider by up to 3% of total shares through centralized bidding and block trading within the next three months.
Over the past two years, the company shifted its strategy to emphasize investments in core business areas while de-emphasizing non-core operations and traditional retail investments. However, the focus on artificial intelligence, particularly embodied intelligence, has grown significantly. Data from the Tianyi Research Institute indicate that since 2023, half of Alibaba’s investments have been directed toward AI, a sharp rise from just 4% before 2023.
For example, Haoyue became a new shareholder in Noematrix earlier this month, with the company’s registered capital increasing to roughly CNY16.2 million (USD2.3 million) from CNY14.9 million, according to corporate data platform Tianyancha. Noematrix specializes in developing embodied intelligence systems and integrated platforms.
In January, Hangzhou Haoyue also acquired a stake in Robotera, a Chinese manufacturer of humanoid robots and embodied intelligence solutions. In September, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group led a funding round for X Square Robot, a startup working on general-purpose embodied intelligence models.
Other companies in which Alibaba has invested include LimX Dynamics, Unitree Robotics, Galaxea Dynamics, and Linkerbot.
Alibaba’s CEO and Alibaba Cloud’s chairman and CEO, Eddie Wu, mentioned at the Apsara Conference in September that the number of AI agents and robots operating alongside humans could surpass the world’s population in the future. Wu emphasized that embodied intelligence is a key focus for Alibaba Cloud’s ongoing investments in AI applications and computing power.
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