Alibaba (9988) posted its fastest pace of revenue growth in more than a year, reflecting a turnaround in its commerce business and big strides into the critical field of AI.

It reported a faster-than-projected 8 percent rise in sales to 280.2 billion yuan (HK$299.14 billion) in the December quarter, after cloud services revenue expanded its most on a quarterly basis in about two years. The company’s share rose more than 6% in US pre-market trading.

Alibaba is staging a comeback after a brutal government clampdown gutted its internet business, once by far China’s dominant online commerce platform. The business began to turn around in 2024 after Joe Tsai Chung-Hsin and Eddie Wu Yongming— two of co-founder Jack Ma Yun’s most trusted lieutenants — retook the helm and focused investment on AI and e-commerce.

The cloud division, which houses the company’s diverse AI-related projects and hosts computing power for external clients, grew revenue 13 percent to US$4.3 billion (HK$33.54 billion). International commerce sales — driven by overseas marketplaces such as AliExpress and Trendyol — surged 32 percent in the December quarter.