$BABA Lags US AI Giants Despite Having the Healthiest Balance Sheet

BrianTycangco鄭彥渊
10-22 19:08

YTD performance tells a striking story for AI hyperscalers $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ $Alphabet(GOOG)$ $Amazon.com(AMZN)$ $Alibaba(BABA)$

AI capex is putting pressure on all four companies:

  • 💸 Free cash flow has deteriorated across the board.

  • 📉 In the most recent quarter, all except $META posted negative FCF.

  • 🏦 $BABA and $GOOGL have issued shares to support capex, while $AMZN and $META have turned to debt.

Yet Alibaba stands out: it retains the healthiest balance sheet of the group, raised the least fresh capital, and funded most of its AI spending internally.

Still, $BABA has lagged its US peers by at least 37% YTD.

It now trades at a 45% discount on forward P/E, with an even steeper discount on forward price-to-sales.

🐯 The disconnect is hard to ignore: stronger balance-sheet resilience, but a much lower valuation. Will the market eventually close the gap?

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