Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Alibaba To Boost AI Spending

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Alibaba (BABA) shares surge in Hong Kong as CEO announces AI spending boost beyond $50B plan. (00:26) Ford (F) courts riskier borrowers with lower rates for F-150 pickups: report. (01:20) Lithium Americas (LAC) skyrockets as Trump administration reportedly seeks equity stake. (03:06)

This is an abridged transcript.

Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) shares rose to their highest in nearly four years on Wednesday in Hong Kong after revealing plans to ramp up AI spending.

The company’s CEO said Alibaba now plans to boost its capital spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure beyond the originally planned 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over the next three years.

Bloomberg reported that Eddie Wu anticipates overall investment in artificial intelligence accelerating to some $4 trillion worldwide over the next five years—and Alibaba needs to keep up.

However, he did not disclose the additional budget for AI infrastructure spending.

Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) on Tuesday unveiled its open source large language model called Qwen3-Omni, which can process text, images, audio, and video.

On Wall Street BABA is up 9% at $178.00.

Ford (NYSE:F) is trying to get more buyers for its F-150.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a spokesperson from the company, that Ford (NYSE:F) is offering lower interest rates to buyers with the weakest acceptable credit history.

This is an attempt by Ford to court these low-credit customers as it looks for a strong close to the quarter for its F-150 pickup.

The automaker highlighted its struggle with tariffs a few months ago. Ford has been largely absorbing the cost of tariffs on imported steel, aluminum, and auto parts to keep sales volume high, despite it cutting into the company’s profit.

A Ford spokesman said the program isn’t expected to continue beyond the end of the month.

Lithium Americas (NYSE:LAC) +78% in pre-market action.

The surge follows a report that the Trump administration is seeking an equity stake of as much as 10% in the company as it renegotiates terms of the $2.3 billion Department of Energy loan for its Thacker Pass lithium project.

The ~$3 billion project was approved by Trump at the end of his first term, and the loan from the DoE’s Loan Programs Office was closed last year by the Biden administration.

According to the report, Lithium Americas (NYSE:LAC) was scheduled to make its first draw on the loan earlier this month but Trump officials sought to renegotiate terms following concerns about the company’s ability to repay given the low price of lithium.

General Motors (NYSE:GM), which invested $625 million in the mine last year for a 38% stake, has the right to buy all the lithium from the Thacker Pass project’s phase 1 and part from phase 2 for 20 years, although Trump officials are now seeking a guarantee that GM will buy the metal.

What’s Trending on Seeking Alpha:

Micron projects record $12.5B Q1 2026 revenue as AI demand tightens DRAM supply

OpenAI, Oracle reveal first Stargate data center in Texas: report

Russian fuel crisis grows as Ukraine steps up drone attacks on refineries

Catalyst watch:

• Notable investor events include Guardant Health’s (GH) Investor Day and Phillips Edison & Company’s (PECO) business update call.

• Shareholders with Verona Pharma (VRNA) will vote on the $10B acquisition offer from Merck (MRK).

• Shareholders with TaskUs (TASK) will vote on the acquisition offer from a group led by the company’s co-founders and Blackstone (BX).

Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is up 0.3% at $63/barrel. Bitcoin is up 0.4% at $112,000. Gold is up 0.1% at $3,770.

The FTSE 100 is down 0.1% and the DAX is down 0.2%.

The biggest movers for the day premarket: Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) -9% – Shares sank after the company announced a $200M private offering of convertible senior notes due 2031, with an option for purchasers to buy an additional $30M.

On today’s economic calendar: