Alibaba Cloud to Launch First Data Centers in Turkey, Finland, Netherlands; Expands AI Portfolio

Alibaba Cloud (BABA) said Wednesday at its Apsara Conference in Hangzhou it will open its first cloud regions in Turkey, Finland and the Netherlands over the next 12 months, while expanding capacity in Malaysia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, France and Hong Kong. The company said the buildout, which deepens competition with Amazon and Alphabet in markets outside Asia, will increase computing capacity and support localized cloud and AI services. Alibaba said it already operates 107 availability zones across 31 regions. It recently opened facilities in Brazil and France. Alibaba Cloud also launched three AI products: Smart Studio, which it says delivers up to 505% higher throughput than standard open-source frameworks on identical hardware; Smart Fusion, a multi-model routing engine it says can cut token costs by about 50%; and Smart Video, a text-to-video tool supporting more than 20 languages and clips up to one hour. The expansion is part of a three-year, $53 billion AI spending program announced in 2025, with capital expenditures expected to keep climbing.