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Alibaba Announces Unprecedented Expansion with Data Centers in Brazil, Strengthens Strategic Partnership with Nvidia and Bets on In-House Chips to Reduce External Dependence, Moving Billions and Elevating the Global Competition for Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.
Alibaba has confirmed that it will install its first data center structures in Brazil, along with France and the Netherlands, expanding the group’s global cloud presence and reinforcing the conglomerate’s shift toward artificial intelligence.
The announcement came alongside a partnership with American Nvidia in the area of “Physical AI” and the presentation of Qwen3-Max, a new language model with over 1 trillion parameters.
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Global Expansion Includes Brazil and Eight More Markets
According to the company, the first data centers in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands are part of the immediate plan.
Next, Alibaba intends to open new facilities in Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Dubai over the next year, maintaining the pace of international cloud expansion.
Today, the network operates 91 availability zones in 29 regions.
The company did not specify whether the new units will use Nvidia chips.
Billion-Dollar Bet on AI and Market Outlook
At the Apsara Conference, CEO Eddie Wu stated that global investment in AI could reach US$ 4 trillion in the next five years and indicated that Alibaba will increase the previously announced budget of 380 billion yuan (approximately US$ 53 billion) for AI infrastructure over three years.
The executive did not disclose additional figures.
“The pace of industry development has far exceeded what we anticipated, and the demand for AI infrastructure has as well,” Wu said.
Partnership with Nvidia Aims for “Physical AI”
Alibaba has reached an agreement to integrate Nvidia’s “Physical AI” toolkit into PAI (Platform for AI), its cloud development platform.
The idea is to accelerate tasks such as data synthesis, model training, environment simulation, and validation, with applications ranging from humanoid robotics to autonomous systems.
This announcement comes amid restrictions in China on the use of Nvidia GPUs, which is why the collaboration focuses primarily on software.
Market Reacts and Ark Invest Returns to the Stock
The company’s move has encouraged investors.
After four years, Ark Invest, led by Cathie Wood, reopened positions in Alibaba in two ETFs, amid a surge in the stock following the conference.
The reinvestment was disclosed in a trading report this week.
Chinese Race for AI Accelerates Capex
In China, giants like Tencent, Baidu, and JD.com are also increasing investments to train models and scale AI services.
Estimates from Bloomberg Intelligence indicate that the combined capex in AI infrastructure and services from these four groups could exceed US$ 32 billion by 2025, more than double what was recorded in 2023.
Qwen3-Max and the Product Showcase
During the event, Alibaba presented Qwen3-Max, a model with over 1 trillion parameters focused on code generation and autonomous agents, along with other tools like Qwen3-Omni.
The company cited independent tests in which the model outperformed rivals in specific metrics.
Cloud Grows and Drives Results
The redirection of business to AI is already reflected in the numbers.
In the quarter ending June 30, the cloud division recorded a 26% increase in revenue, with triple-digit growth in AI-related products, making it the fastest expanding unit of the group during the period.
In-House Chips Gain Traction with China Unicom
To reduce dependence on foreign suppliers, Alibaba is investing in hardware through its T-Head (Pingtouge) unit.
China Unicom, the second-largest mobile operator in the country, adopted T-Head’s AI accelerators in a new large data center in Qinghai, marking a significant commercial advance for the company’s chips.
Restrictions in China on Nvidia GPUs
The regulatory environment remains challenging.
Chinese authorities instructed major technology companies to halt orders and testing of the RTX Pro 6000D GPU and discouraged the use of Nvidia’s H20 chip, reinforcing the focus on domestic solutions.
This guidance increases uncertainties about access to foreign processors for training advanced models.
Huawei Details Roadmap to Challenge Nvidia
Huawei has also increased its bet.
In September, the company unveiled a three-year roadmap for its Ascend line and new SuperPoD architectures, promising performance superior to the NVL systems expected by Nvidia in 2026–2027.
Experts caution, however, that production scale and software ecosystem will be critical points.
How can Alibaba’s cloud expansion with data centers in Brazil and the integration of Nvidia’s stack redefine the competitive landscape for AI in Latin America in the next 12 months?
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