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Alibaba (BABA) Boosts Generative AI Efforts With Qwen2-Math

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Alibaba (BABA - Free Report) is leaving no stone unturned to boost technological innovation driven by generative AI.

In this regard, Alibaba’s recent launch of Qwen2-Math, a group of maths-specific large language models (LLMs), remains noteworthy.

The latest models, built on the Qwen2 LLM, are designed to improve reasoning capabilities in solving complex mathematical problems.

Alibaba aims to gain solid popularity among students and mathematicians on the back of Qwen2-Math.

The latest move will also add strength to Alibaba’s cloud computing unit.

Growing Generative AI Efforts Aid Prospects

Per a Statista report, the generative AI market is expected to hit $36.06 billion in 2024 and reach $356.10 billion by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 46.5% between 2024 and 2030. Alibaba is well-positioned to capitalize on this solid growth opportunity on the back of its expanding generative AI-backed offerings.

Alibaba unveiled the “AI programmer,” powered by the company’s in-house LLM. The AI programmer combines software architect, development engineer and test engineer roles to help developers shorten application development times, sometimes to minutes.

The company also updated Model Studio, its AI model and application development platform, to offer a wider range of models and sophisticated AI tools. Developers can now access more than 100 models from AI companies like Baichuan AI, and the platform also incorporates an open-source framework for application development.

Alibaba is currently leveraging generative AI technology to strengthen its global marketplaces, including AliExpress and Lazada. It is using AI-powered tools to assist cross-border merchants with translation, content creation and product returns.

Alibaba’s launch of its AI programming assistant, Tongyi Lingma, remains noteworthy. It enhances software development efficiency, reducing test code implementation time by over 70% and saving developers hours of manual work.

Alibaba’s growing generative AI efforts are expected to boost its long-term prospects. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 total revenues stands at $141.05 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 8.1%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BABA’s fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $8.20 per share, indicating an 4.9% decline from the year-ago reported figure. The figure has remained unchanged in the past 30 days.

Stiff Competition Hurts Alibaba

However, this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company faces stiff competition in the generative AI market from players like Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) , which are making concerted efforts to strengthen their dominance in the market.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Alibaba’s shares have gained 5.4% in the year-to-date period, underperforming the industry’s return of 6.8%. BABA shares have underperformed Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet’s gain of 8.4%, 9.9% and 17.3%, respectively, in the year-to-date period.

Microsoft introduced new generative AI and data solutions for retailers, enabling personalized shopping experiences, empowering store associates, and unifying retail data. These solutions include Azure OpenAI Service copilot templates, retail data solutions in Microsoft Fabric, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights copilot features and Retail Media Creative Studio.

Meanwhile, Amazon is riding on its AI-powered assistant, Amazon Q, allowing conversations, problem-solving, content generation, and insights. It connects to company information repositories, code, data, and enterprise systems, promoting task efficiency, decision-making and innovation.

Alphabet’s Google recently launched three new open generative AI models, Gemma 2 2B, ShieldGemma and Gemma Scope, which are part of Google's Gemma 2 family. Gemma 2 2B is a lightweight text analysis model licensed for research and commercial applications, while Gemma Scope allows developers to zoom in on specific points within a model. ShieldGemma is a safety classifier that detects toxicity in content.

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