What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Alibaba (BABA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Alibaba generated 75.4B CNY of operating cash flow and -50.5B CNY of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -66.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Alibaba (BABA) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Alibaba's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Alibaba (BABA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

75.4B CNY

Capex

-126B CNY

Free Cash Flow

-50.5B CNY

FCF Margin

-66.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Alibaba (BABA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -50.5B CNY

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Alibaba (BABA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	75.4B CNY	75.4B CNY
Capital Expenditure	-126B CNY	-50.5B CNY
Free Cash Flow	-50.5B CNY	-50.5B CNY
Other Investing	57.7B CNY	7.28B CNY
Share Buybacks	-1.8B CNY	5.48B CNY
Dividends Paid	-33.3B CNY	-27.8B CNY
Net Debt Change	46.5B CNY	18.7B CNY
Other Financing	-31.2B CNY	-12.5B CNY
Forex Effect	13.5B CNY	979M CNY
Net Cash Increase	979M CNY	979M CNY

Operating Cash Flow75.4B CNY
Capital Expenditure-126B CNY
Free Cash Flow-50.5B CNY
Other Investing57.7B CNY
Share Buybacks-1.8B CNY
Dividends Paid-33.3B CNY
Net Debt Change46.5B CNY
Other Financing-31.2B CNY
Forex Effect13.5B CNY
Net Cash Increase979M CNY

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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