09:03 AM EDT, 08/29/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Alibaba Group ( BABA ) reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings on Friday, although revenue fell short of estimates despite double-digit growth in the Chinese e-commerce giant's cloud business.

The company posted adjusted earnings of 14.75 renminbi ($2.06) per American depositary share for the June quarter, down from 16.44 renminbi a year earlier, but above the FactSet-polled consensus of 14.16 renminbi. Revenue moved 2% higher to 247.65 billion renminbi, but trailed the Street's view for 251.45 billion renminbi.

Alibaba's ( BABA ) New York Stock Exchange-listed shares rose 6.7% in the most recent premarket activity.

"This quarter, our strategic focus on consumption and (artificial intelligence plus) cloud delivered strong growth," Chief Executive Eddie Wu said in a statement. "We generated substantial synergies from combining resources of our consumer platforms which resulted in new highs in monthly active consumers and daily order volume."

Revenue in the cloud intelligence business jumped 26% to 33.4 billion renminbi, buoyed by robust demand for AI, with product revenue related to the technology "now a significant portion of revenue from external customers," according to Wu. AI-related product revenue grew by triple digits for the eighth consecutive quarter, Chief Financial Officer Toby Xu said.

Sales in the China e-commerce segment advanced 10% to 140.07 billion renminbi. Within this division, e-commerce inclined to 118.58 billion renminbi from 108.52 billion in the prior-year quarter, with customer management increasing 10% primarily driven by the take rate improvements, according to the company. China commerce wholesale sales climbed 13% to 6.71 billion renminbi.

The international digital commerce business grew 19% to 34.74 billion renminbi, reflecting double-digit gains in retail and wholesale. The all others segment, which includes Cainiao, Amap and Hujing digital media and entertainment, dropped 28% to 58.6 billion renminbi, mainly due to the disposal of the Sun Art and Intime businesses, the company said.

"Looking ahead, we remain committed to investing in our two strategic pillars of consumption and AI + cloud to capture historic opportunities and drive long-term growth," Wu said.