Alibaba Forms AI Unit Led by CEO Eddie Wu

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. announced the formation of a new business unit on Monday to consolidate its artificial intelligence operations, placing the effort under the direct leadership of Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu. The Alibaba Token Hub, or ATH, aims to unify the company's AI research, products, and services, with a focus on enhancing collaboration and monetization in a competitive market.

Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, ATH brings together several key divisions, including Tongyi Laboratory, which develops the company's Qwen series of foundation models; the model-as-a-service business; the Qwen unit for personal AI assistants; Wukong, which integrates AI into the DingTalk workplace platform; and the AI Innovation unit for exploring new applications. The group also incorporates the consumer app division, DingTalk, and Quark-branded devices such as smart glasses. Positioned alongside Alibaba Cloud and e-commerce operations, ATH is designed to accelerate interactions among research, product development, sales, and enterprise solutions.

In an internal memo to staff, Wu outlined the unit's core mission: "create tokens, deliver tokens and apply tokens." Tokens refer to the...