Shares of Alibaba climbed more than 5% on Thursday after Arete Research raised its rating on the company from neutral to buy, citing accelerating growth in cloud and AI services. The upgrade was accompanied by a target price of 190, prompting 31.6 million shares to trade hands—an 81% increase over the average daily volume. Other firms have also adjusted forecasts recently: Robert W. Baird lifted its price objective to 174 with an outperform rating, while Sanford C. Bernstein trimmed its outlook to 190 but maintained an outperform stance. These shifts underscore growing Wall Street confidence in Alibaba’s ability to monetize its AI investments and expand market share in core e-commerce segments.

Several large asset managers have added to Alibaba positions in the past two quarters. Verde Servicos Internacionais boosted its holdings by 6.9%, acquiring an additional 4,373 shares worth roughly 7.7 million. NTV Asset Management more than doubled its stake, adding 8,484 shares for a 127% gain in position size. New entrants such as Ninety One UK and Marex Group initiated positions valued at approximately 15.3 million and 17.1 million, respectively. Collectively, institutional ownership now represents over 13% of the company’s share count, reflecting broad confidence in Alibaba’s long-term growth trajectory.

Alibaba is reportedly moving ahead with plans to spin off its T-Head semiconductor division into a standalone entity ahead of an initial public offering. The restructuring would grant partial employee ownership and target high valuations in China’s booming chip market. Investors view the move as a strategic effort to unlock value from the company’s AI chip design capabilities, which have shown promising early traction in domestic data-center deployments. While no listing timetable has been confirmed, analysts believe that a successful spinoff could add significant upside to Alibaba’s parent valuation by creating a pure-play semiconductor growth story.