Alibaba Launches AI Task Force After Qwen Chief Walks Out
Alibaba forms new team to speed up foundation model work following the departure of its Qwen AI leader.
Alibaba is shaking up its AI operation. The Chinese tech giant announced a new task force dedicated to accelerating foundation AI model development, according to an internal staff memo.
The move comes right after Lin Junyang, head of Alibaba's Qwen AI team, resigned from the company. Qwen has been one of the most prominent open-weight large language model families coming out of China, making this a significant leadership gap to fill.
Rather than simply replacing Lin, Alibaba appears to be restructuring its approach entirely. A dedicated task force signals the company wants to move faster on foundational AI work — not slower — despite losing a key figure.
The reorganization suggests Alibaba views the AI model race as too critical to let a single departure cause any disruption. Speed is the priority now.