CICC has released a research report maintaining its "Outperform" rating on Alibaba (09988) with a target price of HK$197. The report follows Alibaba's announcement of establishing the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group, aimed at breaking down barriers between its AI-related operations and enhancing internal strategic coordination. Key points from CICC are outlined below.
Recent Development: On March 16, Alibaba announced the formation of the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group, which will focus on the creation, delivery, and application of tokens. Alibaba CEO Yongming Wu will directly oversee the ATH business group.
Breaking Down AI Business Barriers and Strengthening Internal Strategic Synergy: The ATH business group will consist of five divisions: Tongyi Lab (responsible for R&D of the Qwen large model), MaaS business line (building an efficient and open model service platform and technical system), Qianwen business unit (developing a personal AI assistant), Wukong business unit (related to DingTalk, creating an AI-native work platform for the B2B sector), and the AI Innovation business unit (exploring innovative AI applications). Tongyi Lab will be responsible for token creation, the MaaS line for token delivery, while Qianwen, Wukong, and the Innovation unit will handle token application. This structure integrates model capabilities, middleware capabilities, and both B2C and B2B application abilities into a complete system.
CICC believes that Alibaba's organizational integration of R&D, product, and application offers advantages, including: 1) accelerating the commercialization cycle from model to application, reducing friction costs for data feedback to models; 2) under current computing power constraints, enabling unified allocation of computing resources for training and inference to improve resource utilization; 3) reaffirming the core position of AI-related businesses within Alibaba's ecosystem. However, Alibaba must balance frontier exploration in foundational models with commercialization goals on the product side. Maintaining Qwen's leading position in key areas is considered crucial for Alibaba.
Focusing on Tokens to Drive B2C and B2B Applications, Accelerating AI Commercialization: Since the second half of 2025, AI has made positive strides in multimodal capabilities, coding, and agent functionalities, leading to a significant increase in token demand. During the Spring Festival, Alibaba Cloud's Coding Plan tokens became its fastest-growing product in terms of sales. This trend not only raises the bar for token production capacity (computing power) but also highlights potential directions for token implementation and commercialization.
CICC suggests that the establishment of the business group is expected to align various departmental goals—such as technology, revenue, and DAU—around the core concept of tokens, creating a unified operational directive. Additionally, the formation of the ATH business group integrates Alibaba's internal application ecosystem, facilitating comprehensive coordination of B2B and B2C application deployments. Beyond cloud and chip initiatives, this move positions Alibaba to capture potential opportunities in the application sector by 2026.
Risk Warning: Uncertainties in macroeconomics and regulation, intensifying competition, and potential delays in AI progress.
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