- The e-commerce giant’s latest ZTO stake sale marks another step away from assets that once helped bind its ecosystem together
- The money is increasingly flowing toward AI chips, cloud computing and data centers
Alibaba is selling another piece of its old economy.
On September 21, the cloud and e-commerce giant sold 25 million ZTO Express (中通快递) American Depository Receipts (ADRs) for $20.02 each, cutting its stake to 6.1%.
The share sale is the latest in a broader retreat from investments accumulated during Alibaba’s years of ecosystem expansion.
ZTO was more than a financial investment. In 2018, Alibaba and its logistics arm Cainiao led a $1.38 billion investment in the courier, strengthening ties between e-commerce and logistics as China’s online retail market expanded.
Now that capital link is being steadily unwound.
Logistics no longer needs an equity tie
Alibaba’s investment in courier companies once served a clear purpose: build an integrated fulfillment infrastructure around its e-commerce platforms and use equity stakes to secure strategic cooperation.
That logic has weakened. Alibaba can remain a major customer of logistics companies without owning them, allowing commercial contracts to replace some of the equity relationships that once held the ecosystem together.
The same logic is visible elsewhere. Alibaba agreed in late 2024 to sell department store chain Intime (银泰百货) for about 7.4 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), while its sale of Sun Art Retail (高鑫零售) was framed as a move to monetize non-core assets and refocus on core businesses.
The shift is less about logistics or retail individually than about redefining what Alibaba considers strategic.
Money moving into AI
That definition increasingly centers on AI and cloud infrastructure.
Alibaba has pledged at least 380 billion yuan over three years from 2025 to build AI and cloud infrastructure.
It said it had already deployed about 120 billion yuan in AI and cloud capital expenditure over the previous four quarters.
Alibaba also raised HK$80 billion ($10.2 billion) through a share placement in August, earmarking about 60% for global computing infrastructure and 40% for hyperscale AI data centers and cloud upgrades.
CEO Eddie Wu said this month that Alibaba Cloud aims to operate more than 20 gigawatts of global data-center capacity by 2032. The company has also unveiled its latest in-house AI accelerator, the Zhenwu V900.
The direction is clear: Alibaba is selling assets accumulated during the e-commerce era and putting more capital into the infrastructure it believes will underpin the AI era.
AI infrastructure operator
For much of the past decade, China’s internet giants expanded by building ecosystems around their core platforms.
Equity investments gave them influence over logistics, retail and other businesses that reinforced their platforms.
AI changes the equation. The scarce assets are increasingly computing power, chips, data-center capacity and cloud infrastructure.
Not every asset sale is directly funding AI, and Alibaba has said some proceeds will support broader corporate purposes. But the contrast between what it is selling and what it is building is striking.
The latest ZTO sale is small relative to Alibaba’s balance sheet. Its significance lies in what it represents: the gradual unwinding of the equity relationships that helped define Alibaba’s e-commerce empire, alongside a growing concentration of capital on AI and cloud infrastructure.
Alibaba is not simply selling yesterday’s assets. It is redefining what it considers strategic for tomorrow.
Header image generated by Tencent Yuanbao AI
