Alibaba Sees Millions of Dollars in Options Block Trades: Options Chatter

The two companies submitted to China's cyberspace regulator the Chinese AI features they co-developed, The Information reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Alibaba's access to more personal data on Chinese consumers than Baidu's was part of the reason Apple decided to work with the company, according to the report.

"We sense an increasingly positive sentiment on the stock, which is evidenced by a 13% share price rally of the H share in the past 5 trading days vs the HSI +5%," JPMorgan analysts including Alex Yao wrote in a note on Monday, a day before the report on Alibaba's collaboration with Apple came out. "Nonetheless, there are still mixed views and positions on the stock, which indicates room for share price movement on both sides, in our view."

Those mixed views can also be gleaned in the options market. While the biggest block trade option was a bearish transaction worth $5.3 million in premiums for bearish call options, that came with $3.05 million in bullish call options. Both were posted at 11:07:59, covering call options that give the holders the right to buy Alibaba's American depositary receipts (ADRs) at $150 each.

Apple picked Alibaba after testing different artificial intelligence (AI) models from prominent AI developers including DeepSeek's, according to the report. The iPhone maker eventually decided not to work with DeepSeek, given its lack of manpower and experience to support Apple, which has a large customer base, The Information said.

Alibaba's wider footprint could also be helping boost its investment appeal at a time when President Donald Trump is seeking to boost tariffs on Chinese imports.

"Alibaba could manage the US-China trade war's impact on revenue better than Chinese rivals because of its geographically more diverse overseas e-commerce operations," Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Catherine Lim and Trini Tan wrote in a note yesterday.

"This suggests comparatively lower risks to Alibaba's overseas e-commerce revenue and losses than PDD, excluding logistics, as US-China trade policies unfold," they said.