Alibaba & Tencent miss: can AI serve as the next growth engine? Short answer: yes — but the path is very different for each company, and monetisation is still the key uncertainty. What happened Both Alibaba and Tencent saw market reactions despite heavy AI investments. Alibaba missed expectations due to weak e-commerce and rising costs, while Tencent performed better operationally but was still sold off. The market is clearly shifting from “AI hype” to “show me actual returns.” Alibaba: high-risk, high-reward AI transition Alibaba is pivoting hard into AI through its cloud business. AI-related cloud revenue is growing quickly, and management is positioning it as a long-term core driver. However, there are trade-offs: - Core e-commerce is slowing - Heavy AI investment is pressuring marg

The recent $110B valuation discussion around OpenAI has sparked a familiar debate in financial circles: are we witnessing the beginning of a new technological era, or the peak of another speculative bubble? In my opinion, it is a bit of both. On one hand, companies like OpenAI are clearly at the forefront of a transformative technology. Artificial intelligence is not just another software trend — it is rapidly becoming a foundational layer across industries. From productivity software to finance, healthcare, logistics, and education, the integration of AI is accelerating at a pace we have rarely seen before. When you consider the scale of potential economic impact, a nine-figure valuation for a leader in this space does not immediately seem irrational. However, history reminds us that tran