What's Going On With Alibaba Stock Wednesday?

Alibaba Group Holding Limited  BABA seems to be witnessing a year of transformation in 2023.

Its fintech affiliate Ant Group Co looks to eliminate some operations not core to its China financial-related business under a fresh restructuring.

Jack Ma's fintech firm looks to leave its blockchain, database management services, and international business out of a primary entity that will apply for a financial holding license in China, Bloomberg cites familiar sources.

Once the restructuring is over and Ant secures its financial holding company license, it can prepare for an IPO in Hong Kong instead of a dual Shanghai-Hong Kong listing.

Chinese regulators ended their three-year-long probe into the fintech giant by imposing a 7.12 billion yuan ($995 million) penalty in June.

Ant Group's shareholders also approved the company to buy back up to 7.6% of shares at a valuation of about $79 billion, well below its $280 billion market capitalization ahead of the scrapped IPO in 2020.

Alibaba Group, which holds a third of Ant, also retained its stake in Ant Group.

Ant's breakup would mirror one of its affiliates Alibaba, forming six main businesses, from cloud services to meal delivery and logistics.

Separate reports suggest Alibaba's cloud computing division said it had become the first Chinese enterprise to support MetaPlatforms Inc's META open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model Llama, allowing its Chinese business users to develop programs of the model.

The relationship with Meta could provide sticky customers for Alibaba's cloud business amid intensified domestic competition and its market listing plans, Reuters reports.

Price Action: BABA shares traded higher by 0.14% at $95.11 on the last check Wednesday.