Alibaba Q4 2026 earnings: profit near zero as AI spending surges
Key takeaways
- The company also posted its first operating loss since 2021, with a loss from operations of 848 million yuan ($123 million), according to Bloomberg.
- On a GAAP basis, net income doubled to roughly 25.48 billion yuan, the company said.
- Total revenue reached 243.38 billion yuan ($35.28 billion) for the quarter, up 3% year-over-year.
Alibaba Q4 2026 earnings: profit near zero as AI spending surges Quartz · Nur Photo / Getty Images Cris Tolomia Wed, May 13, 2026 at 6:13 PM GMT+7 3 min read BABA Adjusted net income for the January-to-March period came to just 86 million yuan ($12 million), according to The Wall Street Journal — a figure that, compared with the 29.85 billion yuan recorded on the same basis twelve months prior, amounts to a near-total erasure of profit, driven by the company s aggressive spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and its quick commerce delivery push.
Heavy spending on technology and delivery has eaten into what that figure — one that removes share-based compensation, investment gains and losses, and similar adjustments — is designed to capture: the earnings power of the company s core operations. The company also posted its first operating loss since 2021, with a loss from operations of 848 million yuan ($123 million), according to Bloomberg.
On a GAAP basis, net income doubled to roughly 25.48 billion yuan, the company said. That gain largely reflected mark-to-market changes on equity investments and a low comparison base from the prior year, when Alibaba booked losses on the disposals of hypermarket operator Sun Art and department-store operator Intime.