(Yicai) June 27 -- Alibaba Group Holding has continued to reduce the number of partners at the Chinese e-commerce giant, with former Chief Executive Daniel Zhang and eight others exiting over the fiscal year 2025.

The other retiring partners were Fang Yongxin, Sun Lijun, Wu Wei, Peng Lei, Dai Shan, Yu Yongfu, Song Jie, and Zhu Shunyan, with the number of Alibaba's partners down to 17 after no new were added, Chairman Joe Tsai and CEO Wu Yongming said in a letter to shareholders yesterday.

Most of those who exited had left key roles in Alibaba's core businesses over the past two years or had taken secondary positions. The remaining partners are mainly heads of core businesses and technology leaders.

Established in 2009, Alibaba's partnership system requires members to hold a certain amount of company equity and have served the firm for more than five years, with only senior executives eligible to join. The system grants partners the right to nominate directors and make strategic decisions.

Alibaba has three types of partners: permanent partners, a title held only by founder Jack Ma and Joe Tsai at the moment; ordinary partners; and honorary partners, who become such after retirement and no longer exercise partnership rights but still enjoy partial dividends and rewards.

Overseas E-commerce Business Outlook

Alibaba's overseas e-commerce business continuously improves operational efficiency and will likely achieve single-quarter profitability in the next fiscal year, Tsai and Wu noted.

Alibaba has heavily invested in its loss-making overseas e-commerce business. The international digital commerce group saw adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization loss of CNY15.1 billion (USD2.1 billion) in the 12 months ended March 31, while revenue rose 29 percent from the previous year.

Over the next decade, the biggest growth and variables will be driven by transformations centered on artificial intelligence, Tsai and Wu said. Focusing on this strategic core, Alibaba will increase investments in AI and cloud computing infrastructure, AI basic models and AI-native applications, and the AI-driven transformation of existing businesses, they added.

Alibaba previously announced that it will invest more than CNY380 billion (USD53 billion) in cloud and AI infrastructure over the next three years, exceeding its investment over the past decade.

The Hangzhou-based firm aims to seize new opportunities and build its tech business, centered on "AI+Cloud," into Alibaba's second growth curve, Tsai and Wu pointed out.

Alibaba's net profit surged 77 percent to CNY126 billion in the fiscal year 2025 from the previous year, according to its annual financial report released yesterday. Its revenue rose 6 percent to CNY996.3 billion.

Editor: Martin Kadiev