10:26 AM EST, 02/21/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Alibaba Group ( BABA ) posted an inflection point quarter as cloud operations were "much stronger" than expectations and its artificial intelligence strategy is moving into its next gear of growth, Wedbush said in a Thursday note.

The company is worth around $500 billion and could start to play a major part in expanding its growth ecosystem in the coming years with AI, analysts led by Daniel Ives wrote.

Apple (AAPL) and Alibaba ( BABA ) will be "walking down the aisle" in the coming months with Apple Intelligence rolling out in China with Alibaba ( BABA ) as the partner, the analysts said.

"While DeepSeek and other models have been the headline news we believe the true winners in this race within China will be Alibaba ( BABA ) and Tencent," Wedbush said.

Shares of Alibaba ( BABA ) were up 6.2% in recent Friday trading.

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