Why Alibaba Stock Soared Today

By Joe Tenebruso | January 12, 2026, 8:46 PM

Key Points

Shares of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) leaped on Monday, following several positive developments for the Chinese commerce and cloud computing titan.

By the close of trading, Alibaba's stock price was up more than 10%.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Alibaba's logo is displayed in front of a building.

Image source: Alibaba Group.

Alibaba is becoming a formidable force in the AI arena

The South China Morning Post (which is owned by Alibaba) highlighted a report from AIBase showing that Alibaba's Qwen artificial intelligence (AI) models were downloaded more than 700 million times as of this month.

If the report is accurate, that would make Alibaba's models the most popular open-source AI models in the world today, surpassing those offered by OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and other leading AI developers.

According to the report, "Tens of thousands of real-world applications around the globe have been built based on Qwen, marking a historic peak for [Chinese] open-source large models within the international developer community."

Qwen's success could help to fuel the growth of Alibaba's lucrative cloud computing business. Revenue in its cloud division surged 34% year over year to $5.6 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Regulatory pressure may be easing

Alibaba's share price also likely benefited from reports that Chinese regulators were moving to curb a price war raging within the country's food-delivery industry. The new regulatory stance could boost Alibaba's profit margins by increasing compliance costs, according to Bloomberg.

Higher compliance costs favor bigger enterprises like Alibaba, which can spread those costs over their larger revenue bases. The e-commerce colossus's smaller rivals would find it more difficult to afford those costs, thereby reducing competition.

Should you buy stock in Alibaba Group right now?

Before you buy stock in Alibaba Group, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alibaba Group wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $482,451!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,133,229!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 968% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 197% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of January 12, 2026.

Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Latest News

Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12
Jan-12