Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is reorganizing its sprawling artificial intelligence services and development into a single business unit. This move signals a strong push by the company to make money from AI. The new division, called Alibaba Token Hub (ATH), will be directly led by CEO Eddie Wu.
The new ATH unit will bring together the research team behind Alibaba’s main Qwen AI models, the consumer-facing app division, and other major AI-related products. It will also oversee Alibaba’s workplace communication app, DingTalk, and devices under the Quark brand, such as smart glasses. Wu shared these details in an internal memo to employees, seen by Bloomberg News.
This shake-up comes as Alibaba faces questions about its AI strategy, especially after the recent departure of Qwen’s lead researcher. The goal is to speed up how different teams work together, from researchers to product developers and designers, across all of Alibaba’s AI efforts. The unit’s name, “Token Hub,” directly refers to the computing units that companies charge users for, highlighting a clear focus on making money from AI.
Alibaba’s shares rose by as much as 3.4% in Hong Kong on Tuesday, performing better than the overall market. The company did not say if it will invest more money alongside this overhaul. The restructuring also aims to improve its sales pitch to business AI customers and boost the adoption of Qwen, its GPT-like model that helped Alibaba become an early leader in China’s AI scene.
Chinese AI companies, including Alibaba and MiniMax Group Inc., are finding it harder than Western rivals like OpenAI to turn AI advancements into profit. This is partly because Chinese consumers are less willing to pay for software subscriptions. Most Chinese AI models are open-source and free to download, creating a big difference in revenue between China’s top developers and US companies like Anthropic PBC.
In his memo, Wu stated, “ATH is built around a single organizing mission: create tokens, deliver tokens, and apply tokens.” He added that he would lead ATH directly to drive strategic coordination across Alibaba’s AI businesses, embed AI deeply into how the company works, and maintain agility for quick action.
Before revamping its Qwen app for consumers last year, Alibaba mainly focused on selling AI and cloud computing solutions to businesses. However, the Qwen app still trails behind competitor ByteDance Ltd.’s Doubao, even after spending billions of yuan on promotions during the recent Lunar New Year holiday. With this latest restructuring, Alibaba appears to be shifting more resources back to its business-focused AI ventures.
