Ant Group’s profit plunges 91% as AI spending keeps surging
Ant Group’s latest financial results tell a story that will sound familiar to anyone watching the global AI race: spend first, profit later — if at all. The Alibaba-affiliated fintech giant behind Alipay has seen its bottom line collapse even as it pours billions into artificial intelligence, and the numbers raise real questions about how long that trade-off can last. The relationship between Ant Group and Alibaba, through which most of the fintech company’s financial details reach the public, is once again the only window into a business that otherwise operates largely out of sight.
Key takeaways
- Ant Group’s profit for the quarter ending September 30 fell about 91% year-over-year to roughly 1.2 billion yuan, or around $57 million.
- The following quarter, ending December 31, is estimated to show a further decline of about 79%, to somewhere between 1.13 and 1.15 billion yuan.
- R&D spending climbed 10.7% to 23.45 billion yuan in 2024, up from 21.19 billion yuan, with nearly all of the increase aimed at AI.
- Ant’s AI healthcare app, AQ, launched in June 2025 and crossed 100 million users by July 2025.
- Alipay’s AI Pay features have also crossed the 100-million-user threshold.
- Ant still operates under heavy regulatory scrutiny in China dating back to its blocked 2020 IPO, and it discloses no standalone earnings of its own.
Ant Group’s profit decline amid AI investments
The headline number is the profit drop, and it is a steep one. For the quarter ending September 30, Ant’s The company’s profit declined by approximately 91% compared to the same period the previous year, reaching roughly 1.2 billion yuan, equivalent to about $57 million. For an organization that previously attempted what would have been the largest IPO in history, that is a strikingly modest figure — and a humbling one.
… Continue reading the full article at the original source below.
