Alibaba workforce declines 34% in 2025 amid AI focus by Chinese tech giant

Alibaba's employee base decreased by about 34% throughout 2025, as the company moved away from some of its offline retail ventures while focusing more on artificial intelligence.

The Chinese e-commerce and technology leader ended December with 128,197 employees, down from 194,320 the previous year.

This was revealed in an earnings report issued Thursday, which showed a 67% drop in profit and revenue that fell short of the forecast for the final three months of the year.

The company's shares in Hong Kong fell by 6% on Friday.

The majority of Alibaba's workforce cuts occurred in its March 2025 quarter following the divestment of Sun Art retail group at the end of 2024. 

The tech giant also withdrew its interest in the department store chain Intime around the same time.

Ranked as China's second-largest tech company by market value, Alibaba joins several other leading tech firms in reducing staff over the past year from Silicon Valley to Hangzhou, China.

The workforce of Alibaba has supported its extensive network of business units, which include e-commerce, cloud, logistics, and additional services.

Nonetheless, Alibaba has been gradually cutting jobs in recent years, although the most recent reductions were significantly larger than the 11% cutback in December 2024 compared to the previous year.

This strategy is in line with Alibaba's efforts to shed labor-extensive assets and restructure its main operations, putting a significant emphasis on artificial intelligence.

The tech leader is aspiring to evolve into a comprehensive AI company covering everything from semiconductor production to computing and AI models.

This week, the company unveiled an AI service named Wukong for businesses and raised prices for its cloud and storage services by up to 34% due to increased demand and supply chain costs.

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu stated during an earnings call on Thursday that the company's goal is to expand its cloud and AI revenue to surpass $100 billion annually within the next five years.