<div id="readability-page-1"><div><div><p><strong>Alibaba Group</strong> <span>BABA</span> stock is trading lower on Friday amid reports indicating the e-commerce juggernaut and other major Chinese tech firms have slashed the prices of AI coding models to roughly one-fifth of what leading international rivals charge.</p><p>The companies aim to trade short-term profits for long-term developer loyalty and market dominance, YiCai reported on Friday, citing industry experts. On July 23, Alibaba Cloud launched its Qwen3-Coder model and immediately offered a 50% discount.</p><p>Earlier, Moonshot AI’s July 11 release of the Kimi K2 model, known for its coding and agent capabilities, helped drive Chinese pricing down to about 4 Chinese yuan ($0.55) per million input tokens and 16 Chinese yuan ($2.23) for output, roughly 20% of the cost of Anthropic’s Claude 4.</p><p><strong><em>Also Read: Alibaba, Huawei Dominate China’s Growing Cloud Market</em></strong></p><p>Chinese firms are strategically using price cuts to rapidly attract developers, encourage product adoption, build usage habits, and collect user feedback to refine their offerings, YiCai cited <strong>Charlie Dai</strong>, VP and chief analyst at Forrester.</p><div><div><div><p>Trending Investment Opportunities</p></div></div></div><p>Chen Xin, who oversees Alibaba Cloud’s coding tool Tongyi Lingma, said current paid-user penetration stands at 10–20%, with typical efficiency gains of 10–30%. However, he expects that to rise to 50–60% within six months and potentially reach 80% in a year as both domestic and global models mature.</p><p>Alibaba stock has gained 43% year-to-date, topping the NYSE Composite Index’s (of which Alibaba is also a constituent) over 9% returns.</p><p><strong>Price Action: </strong>BABA shares are trading lower by 1.05% to $119.88 premarket at last check Friday.</p><ul> <li><strong><em>Autonomous Driving Player Mobileye Stock Drops Despite Raising Outlook, Margin Growth</em></strong></li> </ul><p><em>Photo by Poetra.RH via Shutterstock</em></p></div></div></div>

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<p>Alibaba and other Chinese tech firms have significantly reduced the prices of AI coding models to attract developers, offering prices as low as one-fifth of their international competitors. This strategy aims to build long-term loyalty and market dominance. Alibaba Cloud's recent model launch included a 50% discount, while other firms have also lowered prices to enhance product adoption. Despite a year-to-date stock gain of 43%, Alibaba's shares are currently trading down by 1.05%.</p>

- Alibaba Group's stock is down as it and other Chinese tech firms have significantly reduced AI coding model prices to attract developers and gain market share.  
- The price cuts aim to enhance developer loyalty and product adoption, with Alibaba Cloud recently launching its Qwen3-Coder model at a 50% discount.  
- Despite the stock's decline, Alibaba has seen a 43% increase year-to-date, outperforming the NYSE Composite Index.

Alibaba, Chinese Tech Firms Slash AI Model Prices To Win Developers