ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd.’s cloud division has pledged US$1 billion to support startups in Asia, marking one of its largest outlays since the tech giant pledged to boost spending. The US$1 billion will be the initial funding for Project AsiaForward, which aims to nurture 100,000 developers and tech startups over the next three years, Alibaba said in a statement Tuesday. The company aims to build a million-strong talent pool by providing training for developers, as well as connecting entrepreneurs with venture capital and other opportunities. Jack Ma’s e-commerce titan said last month it will invest all incremental profits into areas like technology and e-commerce, after Chinese antitrust regulators imposed a record US$2.8 billion fine that drove the firm to its first quarterly loss in nine years. “We are seeing a strong demand for cloud-native technologies in emerging verticals across the region, from e-commerce and logistics platforms to fintech and online entertainment,” Jeff Zhang, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said in the statement. “Our focus on innovation and data center investments, as well as talent development is in anticipation of a digital-first future,” Zhang said. Alibaba’s cloud business, modeled on Amazon Web Services, grew from the needs of its massive online shopping operation to become one of the e-commerce giant’s biggest growth engines. But its expansion is slowing in the wake of competition from Tencent and Huawei Technologies Co. Its cloud revenue rose just 37 percent in the March quarter, the slowest pace since 2014, after a major customer pulled out. (SD-Agencies) | 