
Cloud growth drives Alibaba past profit forecasts

Alibaba Group (NYSE : BABA) missed analyst revenue expectations by a noticeable margin but absolutely crushed profit forecasts - a contradiction that sent shares climbing 12.9% despite the initial wobble. The Chinese e-commerce heavyweight posted revenue of RMB247.65 billion (US$34.6 billion), falling short of the 252.9 billion yuan consensus forecast that Wall Street was banking on. Net income of 43.11 billion yuan obliterated expectations of 28.5 billion yuan. The earnings surge came largely from gains in equity investments and offloading Turkish e-commerce firm Trendyol - which means the core operating engine actually lost steam.Cloud becomes the heroCloud computing saved the quarter, with revenue rising 26% to 33.4 billion yuan - a meaningful acceleration from 18% growth in the prior quarter. This marked Alibaba's strongest cloud performance in recent memory, with AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit growth for the eighth consecutive quarter. The AI boom provided crucial momentum for Alibaba's cloud division, which has spent years struggling to match the growth rates of Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. Meanwhile, Alibaba's core e-commerce business delivered mixed signals. The main e-com




