Alibaba Group Holding LtdUS officials accused Alibaba of improperly distilling American AI models, raising technology-restriction and compliance risk.

Alibaba Group was named among six Chinese companies accused by U.S. officials of improperly distilling American AI models, sending its U.S.-listed shares down approximately 0.4% to $108.93 Thursday morning. The dispute centers on whether Chinese developers used outputs from American AI systems to train competing models faster and more cheaply, and Beijing dismissed the allegations as unsupported by facts or law, arguing that distillation is a neutral industry practice and warning against using the claims to constrain Chinese companies. No court has ruled on the accusations. Alibaba's latest quarter delivered 48.4 billion yuan in AI-cloud and computing revenue, up 45%, while capital expenditures reached 67.7 billion yuan, roughly 140% of that quarterly revenue. The stock trades 9.03% below its GF Value estimate of $119.74, a discount that could be tested by escalating technology restrictions, compliance costs and customer caution that may delay the payoff from Alibaba's aggressive AI spending.
Alibaba Group Holding LtdUS officials accused Alibaba of improperly distilling American AI models, raising technology-restriction and compliance risk.