HONG KONG, July 5, 2026, 03:05 (HKT)
- Alibaba shares in Hong Kong were up 5.1% for the week, but by Friday’s close the stock was still just 6.1% above its 52-week low.
- Alibaba Cloud is now part of Kuaishou’s Kling AI funding round, alongside Tencent and Baidu. The funding puts Kling’s valuation at $15 billion before the new capital.
- The U.S. ADR ended Thursday at $96.14. The NYSE was closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.
Hong Kong’s stock market doesn’t trade on Sundays and stayed closed last Wednesday for the city’s Special Administrative Region Establishment Day. That gave Alibaba Group Holding Limited (HKG:9988; NYSE:BABA) four trading sessions for Hong Kong investors last week. HKEX’s 2026 calendar still puts the market shut on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays like July 1.
Alibaba’s Hong Kong stock finished Friday at HK$94.10, slipping 0.42% on the day, but up 5.1% from last week’s HK$89.50 close. The shares are still down 49.5% from the 52-week high of HK$186.20, and 6.1% above the 52-week low of HK$88.65 seen on June 26.
| Market line | Last close | Latest move | Week note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba Hong Kong HKG:9988 | HK$94.10, July 3 | -0.42% | Up 5.1% since June 26 |
| Alibaba ADR NYSE:BABA | $96.14, July 2 | -1.89% | Rose 1.4% over the week |
| Hang Seng Index | 23,350.03, July 3 | +1.28% | Hong Kong benchmark jumped past Alibaba Friday |
| Kuaishou Technology HKG:1024 | HK$42.60, July 3 | -0.09% | Lost gains from the early Kling AI pop |
Alibaba investors aren’t watching for a new model this time. The main story is what Alibaba is paying to buy into another firm’s AI video business. Kuaishou Technology HKG:1024 said Alibaba, Tencent Holdings HKG:0700 and Baidu Inc (HKG:9888; NASDAQ:BIDU) are part of a group that will put in over 19 billion yuan, or $2.8 billion, for a stake in Kling AI, valuing it at $15 billion before the deal. The total round could hit 20.45 billion yuan, which would cut Kuaishou’s stake from 100% to around 68%.
Alibaba’s cloud arm joined the round, a filing cited by the South China Morning Post showed. State-affiliated funds and media companies invested as well. These included funds linked to Beijing’s AI drive and entertainment players that use AI video tools.
| Scale check | Figure | Investor read-through |
|---|---|---|
| Kling AI pre-money value | $15.0 billion | This is around 64% of Kuaishou’s market value, comparing Friday’s HK$184.33 billion and using a July 4 USD/HKD rate near 7.843 |
| Kling AI implied post-money value | about $17.8 billion | That would be near 76% of Kuaishou’s market value |
| Alibaba Hong Kong market value | HK$1.84 trillion, or about $234.6 billion | Kling’s pre-money value is about 6.4% of Alibaba’s market cap |
| Alibaba July 2 buyback | $49.99 million | This is about one-56th the size of Kling’s disclosed round; Alibaba’s own share wasn’t disclosed |
Alibaba investors have to watch two AI bets at once: the company’s own big cloud spend and smaller picks like Kuaishou. Kuaishou reported its Kling AI made 650 million yuan in revenue last quarter, up more than four times from a year ago. That puts the $15 billion pre-money valuation at about 39 times annualized Q1 sales, based on Reuters’ yuan-dollar rate.
Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu told analysts in May that “the return on our investments in AI plus Cloud” is “increasingly clear,” adding that “margin is still secondary.” Cloud Intelligence sales climbed 38% to 41.63 billion yuan in the March quarter. Reuters said AI products made up 30% of external cloud revenue. Reuters
The buyback figure sets up a more direct price handle for now. Alibaba reported in a July 3 filing that it bought back 4.1616 million shares on the NYSE on July 2, spending $49.99 million at prices between $11.90 and $12.24 a share. All of those shares are set for cancellation.
Kuaishou shares jumped as much as 6.9% Friday on the back of the Kling financing headlines, but ended the session little changed. The stock reached a high of HK$45.58, up 7.0% from the prior close of HK$42.60, before giving up most gains.
Hong Kong and New York are out of sync to start the week. Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares fell Friday after the Kling news broke, but the ADR didn’t trade because NYSE markets were shut for the Independence Day holiday. NYSE marks July 3, 2026 as its next observed Independence Day.
Traders are watching if Alibaba can keep its Hong Kong shares above HK$94 on Monday after clawing back some of June’s losses. Kuaishou still has as much as two months to land another investor for the Kling round cap, which sets up another deadline-driven read on appetite for China AI video plays.
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