By Senad Karaahmetovic
Alibaba (HK:9988) yesterday unveiled its generative AI model Tongyi Qianwen at the highly anticipated Alibaba Cloud Summit.
CEO Daniel Zhang, AliCloud CTO Jingren Zhou, and AliCLoud Chief Business Officer Yinghua Cai were all present at the event. The launch comes amid increased scrutiny around generative AI technology by Beijing, whose cyberspace regulator this week presented draft measures for managing generative artificial intelligence services.
"We are at a technological watershed moment driven by generative AI and cloud computing, and businesses across all sectors have started to embrace intelligence transformation to stay ahead of the game," said Zhang.
Tongyi, which was first introduced in September, will be integrated into all Alibaba services, including DingTalk, Tmall Genie, Taobao, and others.
"We believe the usage of Tongyi will accelerate AliCloud revs growth and position AliCloud for multiple growth opportunities," Citi analysts wrote in a client note.
Bernstein analysts also weighed in positively on the event as it "reaffirmed our view that Alibaba has the tools necessary to be an AI winner in China."
"It's hard not to get at least a little excited about the possibilities that lie ahead," the analysts said in a note.
Similarly, Goldman Sachs analysts reiterated a Buy rating on BABA stock after the event and remain generally positive on the outlook for China's tech titan.
"We continue to see Alibaba as one of the best value stock proxies to enjoy the advertising recovery, fintech (via. 33%-owned Ant) and cloud structural growth as we see large room for valuation multiple re-rating as its top line growth resumes and CY2023-25E earnings resume to teens growth," the analysts said.
Alibaba shares are down 1.8% in pre-market Wednesday.