The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba have announced a multiyear partnership, as the league stages two games in Macau to mark its return to the Chinese market for the first time since 2019. The announcement by Alibaba Group on Thursday said it would provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services with the NBA and enhance fan experiences on the NBA app in China. The NBA is due to play two preseason games in the Chinese special administrative region on Friday and Sunday, part of a five-year contract with Las Vegas Sands' Macau unit Sands China. The games mark the first time the NBA is playing in Macau, the world's largest gambling hub, and follow a years-long absence amid controversy over the 2019 Hong Kong protests. The Macau games aim to bolster the NBA's profile in China, where the league estimates say about 300 million people play basketball, at a time of rising political tensions between the United States and China.