“I wouldn’t trust Alibaba any further than I could throw them, they’re likely just talking about distribution centers. Want to see how much profit there is, in ignoring intellectual property laws? Look no further, they’re the poster child for everything wrong with Chinese MFN status in my opinion.”
Very true.
But, they have been thinking about this expansion for a couple of years. So, it’s probably just to get on the good side of Trump. At one point, they had selected office space in Silicon Valley - but that fell through.
It's a nice photo-op for Jack Ma and Trump but announced 1 million new jobs is entirely speculative and unrealistic since there is really nothing that is going to be "built" except [possibly] the new sales channel, for some who already sell on eBay and Amazon and from their own web stores. It's mostly a promo for Alibaba, to help increase market share in the US.
Worth mentioning that Yahoo! (aka Altaba / "Alternate Alibaba") after the sale of IP and most operations to Verizon) owns 14% of Alibaba (BABA) which could be worth approximately US$35-$40bn, besides holding a 35% stake in Yahoo! Japan subsidiary - becoming essentially a financial equity holding company and similar to ETF / "tracking stock" of Alibaba (which is no longer necessary since BABA ADR has been trading on NYSE since 2015).