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Wency Chen

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.
Lingxi’s portfolio is led by Three Kingdoms Tactics, a long-running strategy game launched in 2019 that analytics platform Sensor Tower estimated had generated more than US$1 billion in player spending by early 2021. Other high-profile titles include Three Kingdoms Fantasy Land and Ru Yuan, a story-driven mobile card game.
The Lingxi deal values the gaming studio at more than US$1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Trustar, the private equity arm of Citic Capital, is one of China’s major buyout platforms, with landmark investments in McDonald’s China and the take-private transaction of Nasdaq-listed power-bank operator Energy Monster.
“Looking ahead, the management team and I will continue working alongside our colleagues to create more games with soul that players will remember, and to make Lingxi an agile, inclusive and dynamic company,” Zhou said in the letter.
Alibaba did not immediately respond on Monday to a request for comment. Alibaba owns the SCMP.


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The landmark deal sees Citic Capital’s private equity arm acquiring the unit famous for strategy game Three Kingdoms Tactics


The landmark deal sees Citic Capital’s private equity arm acquiring the unit famous for strategy game Three Kingdoms Tactics.


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

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The landmark deal sees Citic Capital’s private equity arm acquiring the unit famous for strategy game Three Kingdoms Tactics

The landmark deal sees Citic Capital’s private equity arm acquiring the unit famous for strategy game Three Kingdoms Tactics