Cohen’s sizable stake in Alibaba is a bullish bet on China’s economic growth in the long run, The Wall Street Journal said.

On Feb 20, Alibaba reported a faster-than-projected 8 per cent rise in sales to 280.2 billion yuan (S$51.6 billion) in the December quarter, after cloud services revenue expanded its most on a quarterly basis in about two years.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group will focus on expanding data centres and computing capabilities to support the next generation of AI applications

Alibaba's shares opened 10% higher in Hong Kong on Friday to reach their highest level in more than three years, after it reported third-quarter revenues just above analysts' estimates and said it plans to invest more in e-commerce and AI.