AI Demand Surge Prompts Alibaba and Baidu to Raise Cloud Prices by 34%

Alibaba Cloud and Baidu Cloud announced increases to certain service fees. The adjustments take effect on April 18.

What Alibaba is changing

Alibaba said services running on its AI chips will see higher fees. The company cited increases ranging from 5 to 34 percent.

The T-Head Zhengwu 810E AI chip was unveiled in late January. Alibaba also raised its Cloud Parallel File Storage price by 30 percent.

Baidu’s adjustments

Baidu Cloud said AI computing power services will cost more. The firm indicated hikes of roughly 5 to 30 percent.

Baidu matched the storage change, increasing parallel file storage costs by about 30 percent. The company set the same April 18 effective date.

Market context and industry response

Analysts point to an AI demand surge driving these moves. That surge has pushed Alibaba and Baidu to raise cloud prices, in some cases by as much as 34 percent.

US cloud providers made similar adjustments earlier this year. Tencent Cloud also recently ended limited free access for GLM 5, MiniMax 2.5 and Kimi 2.5.

Expert view

Cui Tingting, research manager at IDC China, called the price changes a reasonable market response. She noted computing demand has surged amid an intensifying global AI race.

IDC research suggests many infrastructure players will boost strategic investment over the next three to five years. Higher costs now may reflect that longer-term spending plan.