Alibaba to Restart Hiring After Xi-Tech Meeting Boost

Alibaba Group, the Chinese tech giant, will resume hiring, emboldened by President Xi Jinping's recent meeting with business leaders, as reported by Reuters. This follows a two-year period of layoffs and reduced investment in China's tech sector due to regulatory tightening.

Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai, speaking at HSBC's Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong, highlighted the significance of the meeting, stating that it sent a "very clear signal to the business community that, go ahead, reinvest in your business and also go out and hire people."

Tsai noted that Alibaba's headcount had declined for the past 12 quarters but expressed optimism that the company is now poised to "reboot and rehire."

The meeting between Xi and prominent Chinese tech figures, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, is widely seen as a sign of thawing relations between the government and the private sector. The regulatory crackdown, which began four years ago, had dampened investment and led to widespread job losses.

Tsai emphasized the importance of private firms like Alibaba in creating jobs for China's vast graduating class, noting that about 25% of new graduates typically seek employment in IT and internet-related fields.

He also expressed concern about the scale of recent AI investment announcements in the United States, suggesting a potential bubble.

"People are talking about $500 billion, several hundred billion dollars. I don't think that's entirely necessary. I think in a way, people are investing ahead of the demand that they're seeing today," Tsai said, adding that he found it worrying when companies began building data centers on speculation.

In contrast, Alibaba plans to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($52 billion) in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next three years.