Alibaba sells gaming arm Lingxi Games as tech giant sharpens focus on AI and e-commerce

Alibaba Group Holding has agreed to sell its wholly owned gaming business Lingxi Games to Trustar Capital as the Chinese technology giant pivots away from noncore sectors to prioritise e-commerce and artificial intelligence, according to an internal letter issued on Monday.

“As part of Alibaba’s broader strategy to sharpen its focus, the group has decided to entrust Lingxi to Trustar Capital,” stated the letter seen by the South China Morning Post and signed by Lingxi CEO Zhou Bingshu. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The sale of the unit comes as the Hangzhou-based group concentrates resources on its e-commerce, cloud computing and AI businesses. The deal follows the offloading of other noncore assets, including exits from hypermarket operator Sun Art Retail and department store chain Intime Retail.

Industry peers are making similar moves. In March, rival ByteDance sold its Shanghai-based studio Moonton to Savvy Games Group – a gaming company backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – in a deal valued at more than US$6 billion.

Lingxi was officially established as a brand in 2019, stemming from Alibaba’s existing gaming operations and its 2017 acquisition of Ejoy, the studio founded by former NetEase chief operating officer Zhan Zhonghui. The largely stand-alone business has since grown into one of the group’s more successful ventures.

The unit operates several in-house development studios as well as gaming platforms Jiuyou and JiaoYiMao. Its reporting line shifted to Alibaba chief financial officer Toby Xu Hong in 2025, according to Chinese gaming media outlet Game Grape at the time.