Alibaba takes its AI cloud buildout deeper into Europe and the Middle East

Alibaba is moving more of the physical machinery behind AI services closer to customers outside China. Over the next 12 months, it plans its first cloud regions in Turkey, Finland, and the Netherlands, while adding capacity in Malaysia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, France, and Hong Kong. A cloud region is a cluster of local computing facilities: putting one nearby can make AI applications more responsive and help businesses meet requirements to keep data in-country. The expansion is part of Alibaba’s goal of operating more than 20 gigawatts of global data-center capacity by 2032—a measure of electricity capacity, not today’s number of computers—and puts it in more direct competition with the big US cloud providers abroad.