Alibaba Group’s Qwen artificial intelligence model division is experiencing a significant shake-up as its head, Lin Junyang, announced his departure on Wednesday. This makes him the third senior Qwen executive to leave this year, raising questions about the future of the rapidly growing AI unit.
Lin Junyang simply posted “Bye my beloved Qwen” on X, offering no further explanation for his decision. His exit comes just two days after Qwen released updated products, making the timing particularly notable for observers.
The departures don’t stop with Lin. Yu Bowen, who led Qwen’s post-training efforts, also resigned on Wednesday, according to a report by Chinese media outlet LatePost. These recent exits follow the January departure of Hui Binyuan, a staff research scientist who focused on coding within the Qwen team.
Neither the departing executives nor Alibaba have responded to requests for comment regarding these changes. The lack of official explanation has fueled speculation amidst investors.
Alibaba’s shares took a hit on Wednesday, falling 4%. This underperformed the broader Hong Kong market, which saw a 2.8% slide as investors worried about the potential impact of the Iran war. The internal changes at Qwen likely added to the downward pressure on Alibaba’s stock.
Despite the leadership changes, Qwen’s mobile app has shown impressive growth. Monthly active users surged from 31.05 million in January to 203 million in February. This places Qwen as the third-largest AI app globally, trailing only OpenAI’s ChatGPT and ByteDance’s Doubao, according to AICPB.com. This significant jump in users followed aggressive promotional campaigns by Chinese tech giants during the Lunar New Year holidays.
Alibaba has been a major player in open-source AI, releasing over 400 Qwen models since 2023. These models have collectively achieved more than 1 billion downloads, demonstrating Qwen’s widespread adoption and influence in the AI community. The challenge now for Alibaba will be to maintain this momentum and investor confidence in the wake of these high-profile executive departures.
