Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence group posted revenue growth of 3% for the quarter ending March 31, well below global cloud providers.
In the company's fourth quarter earnings report, Alibaba--China's largest e-commerce company--said its Cloud Intelligence Group reported revenue of $3.54 billion, up 3% from a year ago. Adjusted EIBTA for Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group was $198 million.
According to Alibaba, revenue growth for the cloud unit was driven by the company's other businesses. Excluding Alibaba-consolidated subsidiaries revenue fell slightly. Alibaba had planned to spin off its cloud unit, but shelved plans citing uncertainty over trade restrictions.
Compared to other cloud vendors, Alibaba's cloud unit is sputtering. AWS grew revenue 13% in the first quarter and hit a $100 billion run rate. Microsoft Azure revenue growth in its most recent quarter was 31% and Google Cloud's first quarter revenue growth was 28%.
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Alibaba said it has been focusing on high-quality cloud revenue and transitioning away from "low-margin project-based revenues." "We expect the strong revenue growth in public cloud and AI-related products will offset the impact of the roll-off of project-based revenues," the company said.
According to Alibaba, cloud revenue related to AI is surging with strength from foundational model companies, financial services and automotive.
For fiscal 2024, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group reported revenue of $14.73 billion, up 3% from a year ago, with EIBTA of $848 million.
Alibaba reported fiscal 2024 net income of $11.04 billion on revenue of $130.35 billion, up 7% from a year ago. Alibaba also announced a bevy of executive appointments in various units. Fourth quarter revenue growth for Alibaba was 7%.
