Key Takeaways
- Shares of Alibaba plummeted up to 4.9% in Hong Kong, reaching their lowest point in 16 months
- Anthropic notified White House officials and U.S. senators that Alibaba allegedly accessed its Claude AI illegally
- The technique in question is known as “distillation” — using outputs from advanced models to train inferior ones
- Other Chinese tech stocks including Baidu (BIDU) and Xiaomi (XIACY) fell over 3% amid broader sector concerns
- Year-to-date, Alibaba has declined 33%, prompting Nomura to slash its 2027 EBITA projection by 15%
Shares of Alibaba (BABA) plunged to their lowest level in 16 months during Thursday’s Hong Kong session following allegations from Anthropic that the e-commerce giant illegally accessed its Claude artificial intelligence model.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, BABA
The Hong Kong-listed shares declined by as much as 4.9% during trading hours. American depositary receipts had already slipped 3% in Wednesday’s session. Year-to-date, the stock has surrendered 33% of its value.
In correspondence sent to White House officials and multiple U.S. senators this week, Anthropic claimed that Alibaba was conducting an “industrial-sized” operation to gain unauthorized access to its Claude AI systems, Bloomberg reported.
This process, known as “distillation,” involves training an inferior model using the responses generated by a superior system. Anthropic stated that the operation was connected to Alibaba and its artificial intelligence division, Alibaba Qwen.
This isn’t Anthropic’s first complaint of this nature. Back in February, the AI company identified a comparable scheme orchestrated by Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek, along with two additional Chinese AI research facilities attempting to replicate Claude’s capabilities.
DeepSeek captured global attention in January 2025 following the launch of an economical AI model that disrupted expectations across the technology sector.
Broader Impact on Chinese Technology Stocks
The damage extended beyond Alibaba. Baidu (BIDU) declined more than 3%, while Xiaomi (XIACY) similarly dropped over 3% as market participants retreated from Chinese artificial intelligence-related equities across the board.
These movements signal increasing anxiety that Chinese technology firms may encounter greater obstacles in the worldwide AI competition, despite continuing to deliver cost-effective products.
Challenges Accumulating From Various Fronts
The timing couldn’t be worse for Alibaba. The corporation is simultaneously grappling with sluggish consumer spending domestically and deteriorating investor confidence in Chinese internet companies.
A portfolio reallocation is also underway — capital is flowing toward hardware and chip manufacturers in South Korea and Taiwan, draining liquidity from the sector.
Regarding e-commerce operations, Nomura analysts calculated that China’s June 18 shopping event experienced an 8% decline in core e-commerce revenue year-over-year. This performance significantly undershot market projections for stable growth.
Consequently, Nomura reduced its Alibaba 2027 EBITA forecast by 15%.
Anthropic’s communication with U.S. government officials represents a significant intensification, transforming what might typically remain a legal or technical matter into a high-profile policy issue before Washington decision-makers.
As of Thursday, Alibaba has not issued any public statement addressing the allegations.
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