Alibaba Group has established a high-level internal task force to oversee its foundational AI model development following the resignation of Lin Junyang, the technical lead for its flagship Qwen AI models. This marks the third senior executive departure from the Qwen division in 2025, raising concerns about stability within the team.
CEO Eddie Wu Yongming will personally lead the new "Foundation Model Task Force." He is joined by Zhou Jingren, Chief Technology Officer of Alibaba Cloud, and Wu Zeming, who heads Alibaba's food delivery division and serves as Group CTO. The move is described by a source as an "emergency response" to secure the future of Alibaba's AI development pipeline after Lin's departure.
In a memo to staff at the Tongyi AI laboratory, CEO Wu emphasized that advancing foundation models remains a "core strategic priority" for the company. He reaffirmed Alibaba's commitment to its open-source model strategy while pledging to scale up investment in AI research and development, recruit top talent, and provide additional computing resources and a larger research team.
To bolster its research capabilities, Alibaba has appointed Zhou Hao, a former senior research scientist at Google DeepMind, to lead post-training research on AI models—a critical step for refining high-performing systems.
Alibaba's stock (BABA) dipped slightly by 1.2% in early trading following the news, reflecting initial investor uncertainty. However, it later steadied, with analysts noting that the proactive formation of a cross-functional task force demonstrates strong internal controls and strategic clarity aimed at mitigating disruption.
