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Alibaba Shares Surge on Nvidia Partnership and Global AI Expansion

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Alibaba announced on Wednesday a sweeping set of initiatives, including a partnership with Nvidia, new global data centers, and its largest-ever AI products, underscoring its pivot to make artificial intelligence a central business priority alongside e-commerce.

The news sent Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares up nearly 10% to a four-year high, while its U.S.-listed shares also rose by a similar margin in premarket trading.

“The speed of AI industry development has far exceeded our expectations, and the industry’s demand for AI infrastructure has also far exceeded our expectations,” Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said at the company’s annual Apsara Conference. He added that spending on AI will be increased, though without specifying figures. Earlier this year, Alibaba pledged 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) for AI infrastructure investments over three years.

As part of its strategy, Alibaba will collaborate with Nvidia to enhance physical AI capabilities including data synthesis, model training, environmental simulation, and validation testing.

The company also unveiled an ambitious global data center expansion plan, announcing facilities in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands, with more to follow in Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Dubai within the next year. This will add to Alibaba’s current network of 91 data centers across 29 regions. The company did not specify whether Nvidia chips would power these new facilities.

At the same event, Alibaba launched its most advanced AI language model to date, Qwen3-Max, boasting over 1 trillion parameters. According to CTO Zhou Jingren, the model demonstrates strong performance in code generation and autonomous agent capabilities, allowing the AI to act more independently toward user-defined goals compared to traditional chatbots like ChatGPT.

Benchmark tests such as Tau2-Bench reportedly show Qwen3-Max outperforming competitors including Anthropic’s Claude and DeepSeek-V3.1 in specific categories.

Additional AI products showcased included Qwen3-Omni, a multimodal system designed for immersive applications in virtual and augmented reality, with potential use cases in smart glasses and intelligent vehicle cockpits.

The announcements come shortly after Nvidia revealed a $100 billion investment deal with OpenAI, highlighting the intensifying race in AI infrastructure.

Alibaba’s cloud division, which reported 26% revenue growth last quarter, is emerging as a key growth driver as the company monetizes its AI services more aggressively.

Rick Perry’s Data Center REIT Fermi Targets $13 Billion Valuation in U.S. IPO

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Fermi, a real estate investment trust co-founded by former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, is seeking a valuation of up to $13.16 billion in its planned U.S. initial public offering, the company announced on Wednesday. The move comes as the surge in artificial intelligence drives demand for massive data center infrastructure.

The Amarillo, Texas-based firm aims to raise as much as $550 million by offering 25 million shares priced between $18 and $22 each.

Data centers have become prime assets as technology companies rush to build the computing power needed for advanced AI models. Fermi joins a growing list of AI-focused firms, such as CoreWeave and WhiteFiber, that have tapped public markets this year.

Founded in January 2025, Fermi has set its sights on developing the world’s largest energy and data complex, fueled by a combination of nuclear, natural gas, and solar power. Despite its ambitions, the company remains in an early development stage and has yet to generate revenue, reporting a $6.4 million loss since inception through June 30.

Fermi’s flagship initiative, known as Project Matador, plans to deliver up to 11 gigawatts of power for data centers by 2038, including one gigawatt ready by the end of 2026. The complex will span more than 5,200 acres in Texas and is expected to attract hyperscaler tenants.

“AI is arguably the investment story of a lifetime, but at this stage Fermi is still a story, and it’ll be interesting to see how much investors will pay for it,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital. He described the valuation target as “very ambitious” for a development-stage company, highlighting the importance of securing contracts.

UBS, Evercore, Cantor and Mizuho are leading the IPO, with Fermi planning to list on both Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange under the ticker “FRMI.” Proceeds from the offering will be used to purchase equipment and powered shells for the Texas complex.

OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank to Build Five New AI Data Centers for $500 Billion Stargate Project

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OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank announced plans to construct five new artificial intelligence data centers in the United States as part of their massive Stargate project, an initiative expected to reshape AI infrastructure.

President Donald Trump hosted leading tech CEOs in January to launch Stargate, a private-sector effort aiming to spend up to $500 billion on the compute power needed to support the next generation of AI.

OpenAI and Oracle will build three new facilities in Shackelford County, Texas, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and an undisclosed Midwestern site. Together with SoftBank and its affiliate, OpenAI will also develop two additional centers in Lordstown, Ohio, and Milam County, Texas.

These new facilities, combined with Oracle-OpenAI’s Abilene, Texas expansion and ongoing projects with CoreWeave, will boost Stargate’s total data center capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts. According to OpenAI, this represents over $400 billion in investments over the next three years. The ultimate goal remains 10 gigawatts of total capacity.

“AI can only fulfill its promise if we build the compute to power it,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement.

The new projects are expected to create 25,000 on-site jobs. The announcement follows Nvidia’s pledge on Monday to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply data center chips.

To finance Stargate, OpenAI and its partners plan to use debt financing and lease chips, according to sources familiar with the matter.

With backing from Microsoft, OpenAI joins other tech giants pouring billions into AI infrastructure to support services such as ChatGPT and Copilot.

Given AI’s growing importance in sensitive fields like defense—and with China racing to catch up—both the private sector and the Trump administration have made AI infrastructure a strategic priority.