The stock market, that great bureaucratic labyrinth of modern capitalism, has summoned Alibaba (BABA) like a phoenix rising from data centers. By 12:26 p.m. ET Monday, shares soared 3%-a waltz of algorithmic whims and the Devil himself nodding approval at Barclays analyst Jiong Shao’s latest decree. For in this realm, where spreadsheets are holy texts and price targets divine revelations, Shao’s $190 per share prophecy is no mere number, but a séance with profitability.
Cloud to Accelerate (Or So the Devil Says)
Shao, that scribe of Wall Street’s cathedral of numbers, has not only raised his price target by $45 but also reaffirmed Alibaba as a “buy.” His thesis? A cloud business that thrives on AI’s alchemy, where data storage and machine learning breed revenue like a sorcerer’s apprentice. Eight quarters of triple-digit growth-this is no mere growth, but a resurrection. “Stable margins,” he wrote, as if the very concept of volatility were a bureaucratic quirk to be dismissed with a bureaucratic sigh.
“We expect cloud revenue to accelerate,” Shao intoned, as if channeling the ghost of Marx and Engels debating server racks. And who could argue? Alibaba’s instant commerce losses, he assures, are but a temporary pilgrimage through the infernal fires of market expansion. By September, he predicts, the company will emerge from this purgatory, its losses peaking like a bureaucrat’s temper. Then, he promises, Alibaba will “run its instant commerce business at break-even”-a phrase as comforting as a priest’s absolution in a cathedral of spreadsheets.
The Price of Playing God in China
Alibaba trades at less than 18 times forward earnings, a discount compared to the US tech titans who demand valuations like exorcists demanding holy water. Yet this bargain is a Faustian pact. For in China, where regulatory whims are as unpredictable as a bureaucrat’s coffee intake, Alibaba’s ascent is both a miracle and a gamble. The market here is a bureaucratic maze where the Devil himself might tip his hat to Alibaba’s scale, only to vanish into the red tape of tomorrow.
But for the investor who dares, Alibaba offers a paradox: a tech giant in a market where the rules are written in ink and eraser. If you can stomach the bureaucratic absurdity-where one day the state is a patron, the next a censor-then Alibaba’s stock is not just a trade, but a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage where the reward is not just profit, but the thrill of dancing with dragons. 🧙
Read More
- 39th Developer Notes: 2.5th Anniversary Update
- Shocking Split! Electric Coin Company Leaves Zcash Over Governance Row! 😲
- Live-Action Movies That Whitewashed Anime Characters Fans Loved
- USD RUB PREDICTION
- Here’s Whats Inside the Nearly $1 Million Golden Globes Gift Bag
- All the Movies Coming to Paramount+ in January 2026
- Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin’s starting point for Elden Ring evolved so drastically that Hidetaka Miyazaki reckons he’d be surprised how the open-world RPG turned out
- 8 Board Games That We Can’t Wait to Play in 2026
- South Korea’s Wild Bitcoin ETF Gamble: Can This Ever Work?
- TV Pilots Rejected by Networks
2025-09-08 21:39