The Chinese “Alibaba” group revealed a major plan to expand its network of data centers outside China, targeting markets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, in a step that strengthens its ambitions to transform into a greater global player in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, amid the intensification of technological competition between Beijing and Washington.
The Hangzhou-based group said it will establish its first cloud regions in Turkey, Finland and the Netherlands, in addition to expanding its data center presence in Malaysia, Germany, the UAE, France and Hong Kong over the next 12 months.
The expansion gives Alibaba Cloud a broader infrastructure to serve customers outside the Chinese market, especially with the rapid rise in demand for the computing capabilities needed to train and operate artificial intelligence models.
Alibaba is considered one of the leading companies in the Chinese artificial intelligence race, while its “Coin” model has become among the most downloaded artificial intelligence models in the world.
The group's CEO, Eddie Wu, announced that Alibaba plans to train a new model that includes between 5 and 10 trillion parameters, which will make it several times larger than the largest current Chinese models.
Operating models of this size requires huge investments in data centres, power, chips and communications networks. In this context, the group aims to increase the total capacity of its data centers around the world to more than 20 gigawatts by 2032.
Alibaba's strategy is not limited to cloud infrastructure. The company also unveiled a new artificial intelligence chip called the “Chenwoo V900,” which it said provides three times the performance of the previous generation, the “Chenwoo M890.” Wu described the new processor as “the most powerful artificial intelligence chip in China today,” indicating that the group seeks to build an integrated system that combines chips, models, data centers, and cloud computing.
This strategy gains greater importance, in light of the American restrictions imposed on the export of advanced semiconductors to China. Over the past years, Washington has sought to limit Chinese companies' access to advanced American chips needed to develop the latest artificial intelligence systems, most notably some NVIDIA processors.
In return, Beijing has accelerated efforts to achieve technological sufficiency and encouraged Chinese companies to use domestic chips instead of foreign products. It is widely believed that the previous generation of Alibaba's chips, the Chenwoo M890, has about twice the performance of the H20 chip, which Nvidia designed specifically for the Chinese market.
The announcement of the international expansion comes ahead of the upcoming meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, in Washington. It is expected that trade and technological tensions will be among the issues raised.
Alibaba's plan reveals that competition in artificial intelligence no longer revolves only around producing the most advanced model, but rather has become a race to build the infrastructure that allows these models to operate globally. By combining domestic chips, international data centers and the Cowen model, the group seeks to reduce its dependence on foreign technology, while at the same time expanding its ability to compete outside China.
For the targeted markets, especially the Middle East and Europe, expansion means the entry of a larger Chinese provider into the artificial intelligence infrastructure market, at a time when global investments in data centers and the energy needed to operate them are increasing, making computing power itself one of the most important fields of technological competition in the coming years.
Turkey has made progress in combating money laundering and terrorist financing, with improved coordination between government agencies, financial intelligence and international cooperation and a significant rise in investigations, prosecutions and convictions related to money laundering, according to the latest assessment by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
In its assessment published on Wednesday, the group said Turkey still needs to make further efforts to track cross-border criminal proceeds and recover illicit assets located abroad, as well as address shortcomings in complex and high-risk cases.
The evaluation comes after a previous comprehensive review conducted by FATF of Turkey in 2019, and showed that Ankara has since strengthened its capabilities in confronting financial crimes, especially in the areas of coordination between government agencies, use of financial information, and cooperation with foreign authorities.
In an indication of the improvement in the level of compliance, Turkey did not receive any “non-compliant” classification among the FATF’s 40 technical recommendations, while only two recommendations were classified as “partially compliant.”
Despite the progress, FATF said that Türkiye's position as a regional center for finance, trade, and logistics, along with the wide spread of cash transactions and the size of the informal economy, keep it vulnerable to money laundering risks.
The most prominent risks include fraud, illegal betting and gambling, drug trafficking and smuggling. The group noted that Türkiye has strengthened its ability to conduct complex investigations into money laundering, and that the number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions has increased significantly compared to the previous assessment.
Despite the improved performance of the authorities, the FATF has identified the recovery of criminal assets located abroad as one of the areas that requires further work, in addition to strengthening the ability to track illicit proceeds moving across borders.
The evaluation indicated that the Turkish Financial Intelligence Unit (MASK) plays a pivotal role in collecting, analyzing and exchanging financial information with the relevant authorities, with direct access to more than 300 databases. The group also praised the cooperation between Musk and law enforcement agencies and other government agencies, and Türkiye's use of formal and informal cooperation channels in cross-border investigations.
At the same time, the FATF called on Türkiye to give greater priority to investigations and prosecutions related to money laundering resulting from high-risk crimes, including drug trafficking, smuggling and illegal betting.
It also recommended improving the identification, tracking and recovery of criminal assets located abroad, and strengthening capabilities to confront terrorist financing risks in accordance with the country's updated risk profile. The FATF placed Turkey under “enhanced follow-up,” based on the results of the effectiveness and technical compliance evaluation, with Ankara submitting a report to the group on the progress made in implementing the recommendations during the next three years.
The Chinese authorities are studying the extent to which state-supported data centers depend on the equipment of the American company Broadcom, in a new step within Beijing’s efforts to enhance the use of local technology and reduce dependence on foreign infrastructure for artificial intelligence, according to what was reported by the Financial Times.
According to the report, China's State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which oversees government companies, spent recent weeks conducting a survey to determine the extent of the spread of network adapters produced by Broadcom within data centers under state control.
Preliminary results showed that the American company's equipment may represent up to 90 percent of the transformers used in these facilities, according to the newspaper. Reuters was unable to independently verify the report, and it was not possible to obtain immediate comment from Broadcom or Sasak.
The survey results may prompt the authorities to issue informal directives to government data centers to reduce the use of Broadcom equipment, as part of Beijing's campaign aimed at expanding reliance on Chinese chips and technology in the public sector.
The move comes at a time when China is intensifying efforts to achieve technological sufficiency and enhance the flexibility of supply chains, amid continuing strategic competition with the United States. Especially in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and computing infrastructure.
Beijing provides special support to a group of smaller, specialized technology companies that it calls “little giants,” in an attempt to build local suppliers capable of competing with foreign companies in vital components.
High-performance network switches are an essential part of AI data centers; It connects the servers and processors used to train and run large models. Broadcom, along with Nvidia and Huawei, sells advanced equipment of this category in China.
According to the report, Nvidia products were previously banned from state-supported data centers, while Broadcom equipment remained widely used, which explains the authorities’ current focus on measuring the extent of reliance on it.
If the survey process turns into actual directives to reduce the use of the American company's products, it will constitute an additional step towards separating part of the Chinese government's technological infrastructure from foreign suppliers, and it could also open up more space for local companies.
These moves demonstrate that American-Chinese competition in artificial intelligence is no longer limited to advanced processors. Rather, it extends to the various components of data centers and the communication networks between them. For Beijing, the ability to build a computing ecosystem that relies more on domestic technology has become a key part of a strategy for supply chain security and technological independence.
