Alibaba Courts Spanish Green Power as AI Infrastructure Drive Accelerates

Alibaba opened preliminary talks with Spain's Solaria on green electricity for a Puertollano data center, as it plans over 20 GW of capacity by 2032.

Alibaba has opened preliminary talks with Spanish renewable energy producer Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente SA over supplying green electricity to a data center in Puertollano, Spain, according to Bloomberg. No agreement has been reached, but the discussions signal how power procurement has become a strategic priority for cloud operators racing to expand.

The outreach on the Iberian Peninsula slots into a broader global buildout. At its Apsara conference last month, Alibaba laid out plans to lift total data center capacity beyond 20 gigawatts by 2032, alongside first cloud regions in Turkey, Finland and the Netherlands — all targeted within twelve months. Hong Kong-listed shares climbed 5.1% on the day of those announcements, with a broad technology sector recovery adding support, Reuters reported.

Silicon and Software Push in Parallel

Underpinning the hardware ambitions is the newly unveiled Zhenwu V900 AI processor, which is slated to enter mass production and be commercially available in the first quarter of 2027. Management also presented a roadmap for its Qwen models, which are eventually expected to reach 5 to 10 trillion parameters.

On the software side, Alibaba introduced Qwen Intelligence, a solution aimed at smartphone manufacturers, naming HONOR as its first partner. The company also deepened its commercial ties in sports and entertainment: Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment appointed the Alibaba Group as official technology and cloud partner of the Brooklyn Nets under a multi-year agreement.

Insider Disposal Draws Regulatory Filing

Away from the operational headlines, a management share sale surfaced in mandatory disclosures. Chief People Officer Jiang Fang — identified as Fang Jiang in the filing — disposed of 885,272 ordinary shares on September 30 at a weighted average price of $13.55, reported via a Form 4 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The company simultaneously issued new shares under employee participation programs. Such transactions are a routine part of executive liquidity planning, though the market tracks them closely.

Market Backdrop Stays Mixed

Sentiment around the stock remains cautious. Despite the strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence and overseas expansion, macroeconomic worries and fierce competition in Alibaba's home market continue to weigh on trading. The shares closed Friday down 1.6% at EUR 94.00, leaving them with a year-to-date loss of 26%.

Monday brought some relief. The stock gained 4.0% to EUR 97.80, helped by a firm trading environment for large technology companies after US megacap names advanced early in the session. The move brings the title back toward its 50-day moving average of EUR 101.36.

Whether the AI momentum can durably stabilize the share price is now the question occupying investors, as the company balances heavy investment in computing capacity against an unsettled economic backdrop.