**Alibaba Accused of Assisting Chinese Military Targeting the U.S., Denies Claims**

BEIJING — Alibaba is reportedly helping the Chinese military target the U.S., according to a White House memo cited by the Financial Times (FT) on Friday. The memo alleged that “Alibaba provides tech support for Chinese military ‘operations’ against targets in the U.S.,” although the FT stated it could not independently verify these claims and did not publish the full memo. The timing of the memo’s release remains unclear.

The White House declined to comment on the report, while the Financial Times stood by its coverage.

In response, Alibaba issued a statement to CNBC strongly denying the allegations. “The assertions and innuendoes in the article are completely false,” the company said. Alibaba questioned the motive behind the anonymous leak, noting that the FT admitted an inability to verify the information. “This malicious PR operation clearly came from a rogue voice looking to undermine President Trump’s recent trade deal with China,” the statement added.

Last month in South Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for the first time since Trump began his second term. The leaders agreed to a 12-month rollback of tariffs and export controls, easing escalating bilateral tensions.

Andy Rothman, founder of consulting firm Sinology, suggested the lack of details in the FT report “raises the question of whether some of the China hawks in the administration are trying to undercut the President’s deal with Xi Jinping.” Speaking on CNBC’s *Squawk Box Asia*, Rothman pointed out that Trump has yet to comment on the report and noted that major U.S. cloud computing companies all maintain contracts with the U.S. government.

In recent years, the U.S. has increased efforts to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductors, crucial for training artificial intelligence (AI) models. Kyle Chan, a Brookings Institution fellow specializing in China tech, said the swift drop in Alibaba’s stock following the FT report “shows how much China’s AI industry is on edge over possible new sanctions.”

Alibaba shares closed 3.78% lower in the U.S. on Friday after the report but rebounded to rise more than 1% in Hong Kong on Monday.

Chan also highlighted that the FT report comes amid growing popularity of Alibaba’s open-source Qwen AI model in Silicon Valley. This increases the competitive threat to subscription-based AI models from U.S. companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, while investors express growing concern about a potential AI bubble.

Alibaba is scheduled to release its quarterly results on November 25, before the U.S. market opens.

— CNBC’s Eamon Javers and Elaine Yu contributed to this report.
https://bitcoinethereumnews.com/finance/alibaba-is-helping-chinese-military-to-target-u-s-white-house-memo-claims-ft/