BEIJING: Alibaba announced on Wednesday (Sep 24) a “milestone collaboration” in AI tech with US chip giant Nvidia that the Chinese company said will accelerate its development of humanoid robots.
The news came as Alibaba’s shares soared more than 9 per cent in Hong Kong after chief executive Eddie Wu unveiled plans to further ramp up spending on artificial intelligence.
China and the United States are locked in a fierce tech battle, with the California-based AI chip leader Nvidia wound up in their race for supremacy in advanced semiconductors.
Washington restricts Nvidia from exporting its most advanced products – a crucial component in the generative AI revolution – to China.
Alibaba, which runs some of China’s biggest online shopping platforms, said it was teaming up with the firm in the field of physical AI.
The Chinese company said its cloud division is integrating “the full suite of the Nvidia physical AI software stack, marking a milestone collaboration” in the domain.
“The initiative provides developers with a comprehensive, cloud-native platform to accelerate advancements in humanoid robotics and physical AI solutions,” a statement said.
Alibaba made the announcement in Hangzhou at a subforum of its annual developers’ conference, where panellists included executives from Nvidia and Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.
Alibaba said in February it would spend at least 380 billion yuan (US$53 billion) on artificial intelligence and cloud computing over the next three years.
The company’s share price soared on Wednesday after comments made by CEO Wu at the event in Hangzhou.
“We are actively proceeding with the 380 billion investment in AI infrastructure, and plan to add more,” he said.
