Alibaba on Thursday announced pricing for its upcoming artificial intelligence glasses and launched a new chatbot powered by its latest AI models.

The Chinese technology giant said the Quark AI Glasses will go on pre-sale on Oct. 24 on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Tmall. The pre-sale price will start at 4,699 Chinese yuan ($659.4) but after applying various discounts, will cost 3,999 yuan.

Alibaba will begin shipping the product from December.

The Hangzhou-headquartered firm also unveiled AI Chat Assistant, a new chatbot mode within its existing Quark app.

The latest moves are part of Alibaba’s aggressive AI push this year which has seen the company release updated models and a drive to reinvigorate sales at its cloud computing business through which it sells much of this technology to businesses.

But the glasses and chatbot product highlight an increasing area of focus for Alibaba — AI that is aimed at consumers.

Alibaba’s shares closed nearly 1.7% higher in Hong Kong and its U.S.-listed stock also rose in premarket trade.

Alibaba first announced the Quark AI Glasses in July. It’s the first product of its kind from the Chinese giant and the eyewear is powered by the company’s Qwen large language model and its Quark AI assistant.

The glasses support functions such as hands-free calling, music streaming and real-time language translation.

Many tech companies see wearables, specifically glasses, as the next frontier in computing, alongside the smartphone. The Quark AI Glasses are Alibaba’s answer to Meta’s smart glasses that were designed in collaboration with Ray-Ban. 

The Chinese tech giant will also now compete with Chinese consumer electronics player Xiaomi who this year released its own AI glasses.

The world of enterprise AI is dominated by U.S. names from Microsoft to Salesforce, but Europe has a major player that is pushing hard into the space: SAP.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition,” SAP CEO Christian Klein said that AI is “the number one reason” why customers are signing deals with the firm.  

“After we close Q4, actually, 80, 85% of our revenue for next year is already done. So, [a] good pipeline for Q4 and with that, when we close out the year, our customers, also our investors, can expect there’s also very positive output,” he said. 

SAP’s cloud backlog rose 23% in the third quarter to 18.8 billion, the company said in an earnings statement published late on Wednesday.

“I was pretty optimistic last night, and I’m still optimistic as the pipeline looks good,” Klein said. “We actually now have our biggest quarter.” 

Revenue rose 7% to 9.08 billion euros ($10.53 billion), slightly below expectations of 9.15 billion euros, according to consensus figures compiled by LSEG. However, it saw gains of 22% in its cloud revenue, with Klein citing increasing AI and data cloud market share as the reason for the revenue jump. 

Deutsche Bank said the firm remains a “top pick” in the European tech and global software sector, however it noted that SAP is now guiding toward the lower-end of its forecast for cloud revenue of 21.6 billion euros to 21.9 billions euros this year.

“Against an environment of lengthening deal cycles and pushouts … SAP continues to execute very well, in our view, even if delays in deal closings have led the company to guide to the lower end of its Cloud revenue growth range for FY25,” Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note led by Johannes Schaller.

SAP’s shares were initially 2% higher at the start of the trading session on Thursday, but later pared gains to trade 2.5% lower. The stock is down 3% year-to-date.

SAP briefly became Europe’s most valuable company in March, riding the tailwinds of enthusiasm and gains in the German stock market.

The European Union has faced criticism for its legislative approach to AI, with some businesses calling for deregulation in efforts to catch up in the global AI race. Klein said he’s not sure if the bloc is adopting the right strategy compared with the U.S. approach of, “give me your AI, let’s test it, let’s refine it, let’s optimize it over time.” 

The chief executive said he is laser-focused on creating value, explaining that it is “100%” what customers are looking for. It echoes the message of other AI firms and investors in Europe, given that the U.S. and China currently dominate the training of large language models, which is the infrastructure needed for AI. However, the general sentiment is that Europe has a chance to be a leader in putting it to use.  

The training large language models is now a “commodity,” Klein said, adding that he expects the application of AI will become an increasing priority for businesses and SAP’s bet on this will be reflected in its share price in the future.  

“It’s super important that we are not only selling into a hype, but that we see real adoption,” Klein said.  

SAP has some exposure to China through partnerships that allow it to work “in China, for China,” due to geopolitical tensions, Klein noted. The country’s speed of AI development, low regulation and talent pool makes it hard to ignore, he said. 

The company offers cloud solutions, expenses, and supply chain management and analytics to corporates. It underwent a large restructure in 2024 and pivoted towards AI services, which is now being used across the likes of finance and supplier sourcing.

The Trump administration is in talks with several quantum-computing firms about giving the Commerce Department equity stakes in exchange for federal funding, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. 

The Journal, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, said the companies include IonQ, Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum. Other firms, such as Quantum Computing Inc. and Atom Computing, are considering similar arrangements, it added. 

IonQ and D-Wave shares each jumped 9% in early trading Thursday. Rigetti added 7%. Quantum Computing was up 11%.

The news aligns with recent efforts by Washington to take stakes in major companies within industries seen as vital to U.S. national security, especially those receiving public funds. 

One of the earliest examples under U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term came when the Defense Department invested $400 million in American rare earths company MP Materials for about a 15% stake in the company. 

A month later, the government took a roughly 10% stake in semiconductor firm Intel — the only American company capable of making advanced AI processors on U.S. soil.

The stakes in quantum computing companies would come with minimum funding awards of $10 million each, according to the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Other technology companies are also expected to compete for the grants.

However, the Trump administration will not take stakes in nonstrategic industries, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC in an exclusive interview on Oct. 15. “We do have to be very careful not to overreach,” he said.

Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have argued that the government should benefit from a company’s success in cases where federal funds have played a role in its growth.

The targeted industries also appear to reflect Washington’s focus on technological and economic competition with China. 

The U.S. stake in MP Materials, for example, came after China restricted exports of rare earth elements —essential components in high-tech products — prompting Washington to boost efforts to build its domestic supply chain. 

Intel’s funding also aligns with U.S. efforts to strengthen its domestic semiconductor industry to support its broader race for dominance in artificial intelligence.

Quantum computing, which utilizes quantum mechanics to solve problems beyond the capabilities of today’s most supercomputers, is likely viewed as one of the next strategically critical technologies for Washington to focus on, due to its massive economic and security implications. 

Experts believe that the advanced tech could revolutionize fields including medicine, finance, and materials science by solving complex problems currently impossible for traditional computers, and pose major cybersecurity threats if it falls into the hands of adversaries.