Alibaba $BABA ( ▲ 5.05% ) is catching a serious bid after Bloomberg reported the company is preparing to list its AI chipmaking division, T-Head, in what could become one of the most important “China AI” IPOs in years.
The stock was up around 5% in premarket Thursday as investors leaned into the idea that Alibaba might finally unlock real standalone value from its AI stack.
Alibaba is exploring an IPO for its AI chip division
Per Bloomberg, Alibaba is looking to restructure T-Head first, including turning it into a partially employee-owned business, before moving toward an IPO.
Timing is still unclear, and this is early-stage planning. But the direction matters.
Alibaba is basically signaling: this is not just some internal R&D group anymore, it is a real monetizable AI asset.
Why the market cares: AI chip IPOs are back
Even without a valuation number yet, investors are reacting because Chinese chip IPOs have been ripping.
The report points to Moore Threads Technology, which jumped over 400% on its first day after raising $1.13B.
That is exactly the kind of IPO tape that makes every big tech company rethink what it is sitting on inside its portfolio.
Alibaba is going all-in on AI infrastructure
This IPO chatter is happening while Alibaba is already spending aggressively on AI.
The company has committed more than $53B into cloud and AI infrastructure, basically trying to position itself as China’s full-stack AI platform: cloud + models + consumer app layer.
And it is not subtle about it.
Last week, Alibaba upgraded Qwen, its flagship AI app, making it more agentic, meaning it can do things like order food, book travel, and execute tasks instead of just answering prompts.
Bottom line
Alibaba popping on this report makes sense.
An IPO for T-Head would be the clearest step yet in Alibaba’s AI pivot, and it hits the market at the exact right time: when investors are paying premium multiples for anything that looks like “AI chips + growth + scarcity.”