Alibaba Retail Buzz Heats Up On Biggest AI Model Unveiling Yet, Stock Jumps In Hong Kong

Retail traders were buzzing about Alibaba late Tuesday, following the release of its largest Qwen AI model and rise in the company's Hong Kong shares.

On Stocktwits, BABA was the top trending ticker, even as retail sentiment for the stock was 'bearish' as of the last reading. Notably, BABA stock has climbed sharply, rising about 37% since the company's quarterly report on Aug. 29.

The Chinese tech giant announced Wednesday (early morning Beijing time) Qwen3-Max. The model, its largest to date, uses 1 trillion parameters and shows particular strength in code generation and autonomous agent capabilities.

The model was unveiled at Alibaba's annual Apsara Conference, currently underway in Hangzhou, China. Alibaba's shares (9988) were up nearly 7% in afternoon trading in Hong Kong.

Investors and the tech industry are seemingly impressed by the speed of Alibaba's AI innovation. The company has rolled out several new Qwen models, including the predecessor Qwen2.5-Max, as well as new multi-modal and code generation-focused models, this year.

Alibaba is also advancing tech areas such as custom chip development and striking frequent investment deals with tech startups.

Separately, investor Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management bought Alibaba shares on Monday, after a four-year hiatus. That move is seen as a key bullish signal.

Stocktwits users were forecasting $200 and even $300 levels for Alibaba's U.S. stock, which closed $163.08 on Tuesday.

Last week, Susquehanna raised its price target on Alibaba to $190 from $175 and kept a 'Positive' rating on the shares. The firm stated that while the company's first-quarter results were more mixed overall, AI and Cloud revenue growth continued to accelerate, driven by faster public cloud adoption and strong demand for AI-related products. 

Year-to-date, BABA has gained over 95%.

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