Alibaba Shares Dip Despite Orbital AI Breakthrough with Qwen-3
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. saw its shares edge lower despite achieving a historic milestone in artificial intelligence. The company's Qwen-3 model has become the first general-purpose AI system to operate in orbit, deployed through Chinese aerospace startup Adaspace Technology's Star-Compute Project.
The technical feat, completed in November 2025, demonstrated AI inference tasks from orbit in under two minutes. Market reaction remained muted as investors weighed the long-term potential against immediate economic headwinds. The Star-Compute Project's ambitious roadmap calls for deploying thousands of satellites to support large-scale AI operations in coming years.
Industry observers note the development could accelerate demand for ground network infrastructure and Ground Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) solutions. While the orbital AI milestone marks significant technological progress, Alibaba's stock performance reflects the market's cautious stance on translating innovation into near-term financial returns.