Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ( BABA ) shares traded at HKD 120.60 ($15.49) on Thursday in Hong Kong, down 2.82% ahead of its third-quarter earnings announcement.

What Happened: Major U.S. funds significantly increased their BABA holdings in the fourth quarter of 2024, while several prominent Asian investment firms exited their positions.

Billionaire investor George Soros‘s fund management firm scaled back its Alibaba ( BABA ) position in the fourth quarter.

UBS O’Connor led the U.S. investment surge with a 7,756% increase in holdings to $16.65 million, while Marathon Trading Investment Management LLC and AssetMark Inc. boosted their stakes by 4,826% and 3,406% respectively. Cantor Fitzgerald LP, led by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, also increased its position by 2,504%.

In contrast, Hong Kong-based funds including Trivest Advisors Ltd., Optimas Capital Ltd., and Infini Capital Management Ltd. completely divested their BABA holdings. Shanghai-based Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. also exited its position of 246,016 shares.

See Also: Top Analyst Predicts Apple Will Hit $4 Trillion First Followed By Nvidia — Says AI Demand Is ‘Exploding’ Despite Tariffs And DeepSeek Fears: ‘The Bears Can’t See AI In The Spreadsheets…’

Why It Matters: The contrasting investment strategies come as Alibaba’s stock has surged nearly 50% year-to-date in 2025, driven by developments in its artificial intelligence segment, particularly the launch of its Qwen2.5-Max model. Fourth-quarter filings revealed 1,263 institutional holders owned 324 million shares valued at $27.4 billion.

Recent market sentiment has been bolstered by Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s supportive stance toward the private sector, demonstrated at a recent business symposium attended by Alibaba ( BABA ) founder Jack Ma – his first major public appearance with top leadership since Beijing’s 2020 tech crackdown.

The company’s expansion continues with the launch of its first cloud region in Mexico, extending its global infrastructure to 87 availability zones across 29 regions. Alibaba ( BABA ) is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings on Thursday at 8:30 PM GMT.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.