Alibaba shows gap between chip haves and have-nots

AI is critical to the future of Alibaba, not just for the cloud unit but at other Baby Babas including its logistics and local services divisions. — Bloomberg

ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd last week had announced it cancelled the listing of its cloud services business, citing US restrictions on purchases of top-end semiconductors.

That explanation doesn’t make sense. Instead, it betrays a bigger truth about the supply of advanced chips that afflicts companies in both China and abroad.