Alibaba to Sell Its Gaming Division: It Will Focus Its Efforts and Resources on AI

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is selling its gaming division, Lingxi Games, in a deal worth at least $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg and Reuters, citing an internal company memo. The company is actively seeking to divest itself of non-core assets and strengthen its focus on artificial intelligence and cloud services.

The buyer will be the Asian investment firm Trustar Capital, according to Bloomberg and Reuters, citing a memo. Meanwhile, according to a Reuters source, Alibaba could raise more than $2 billion through this deal.

“Alibaba is transferring Lingxi to Trustar to better focus on its strategic priorities,” said Lingxi Games CEO Zhou Binshu (as quoted by Bloomberg). The memo does not disclose the value of the deal or the timing of its closing. It also does not provide details on the necessary regulatory approvals or other terms of the agreement, Reuters notes.

It remains unclear whether Alibaba will maintain any business ties with Lingxi after the sale, including publishing operations, cloud services, or technology partnerships, Reuters notes.

Representatives from Alibaba and Trustar did not respond to requests for comment from news agencies.

Alibaba shares rose about 2% during trading in Hong Kong on August 17; they have fallen 14.4% since the beginning of the year. In U.S. pre-market trading, the shares rose more than 1.6%.

Guangzhou-based Lingxi Games is best known for *Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition*, a multiplayer strategy game set during China’s Three Kingdoms period. The project was developed in collaboration with the Japanese corporation Koei Tecmo Holdings, whose franchise portfolio includes Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition.

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu is divesting non-core assets and making artificial intelligence and cloud computing his top strategic priorities, with the goal of reaching $100 billion in AI revenue within five years, according to Bloomberg. In early August, the company unveiled its most ambitious AI model to date, claiming performance on par with global leader Anthropic.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor