Alibaba sells Lingxi Games to Trustar Capital for at least $1.5 bln to fund AI expansion

Published Aug 17, 03:39 PM UTC

Alibaba has agreed to sell its game development unit, Lingxi Games, to Asian private equity firm Trustar Capital (formerly CITIC Capital) for at least $1.5 billion, according to an internal staff memo. The deal transfers Alibaba's entire stake in the studio, exiting in-house game development to free up cash for its massive AI infrastructure program, which is expected to exceed its original $53 billion budget. Lingxi CEO Zhou Bingshu and his management team will remain to run the studio. Alibaba has also sold stakes in Sun Art and Intime for $2.6 billion and is preparing an IPO for its chip design unit T-Head to further fund AI buildout. Lingxi is best known for the mobile strategy title 'Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition', developed with Japan's Koei Tecmo. The sale follows a stalled fundraising process in late 2023 after Beijing proposed tighter gaming regulations.