(Yicai) March 17 — Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group Holding has restructured its artificial intelligence business by establishing Alibaba Token Hub, with the new division focused on token creation, distribution, and application.
The Hangzhou-based parent company, Alibaba Token Hub, announced yesterday, will be directly overseen by Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu.
Alibaba’s subsidiaries Tongyi Lab, Qwen, Wukong, Model as a Service business line, and AI Innovation will be integrated into Alibaba Token Hub, according to a letter sent by Wu to staff and confirmed by Yitzai on the same day.
Wu pointed out that the world is on the eve of an explosion of artificial general intelligence, with tens of billions of AI agents powering many digital tasks. Alibaba Token Hub was established to seize this historic opportunity, as these agents powered by model-generated tokens will become the primary medium of interaction between humans and the digital world, he added.
Alibaba will strengthen strategic collaboration between AI businesses centered on the new subsidiary, and will promote its AI strategy in earnest with Alibaba Token Hub as a core business group alongside e-commerce and cloud services.
Alibaba Token Hub covers a complete AI layout, from basic model R&D and model service platforms to AI applications for personal and enterprise users.
Tongyi Lab will be responsible for “token creation” by developing cutting-edge multimodal models, and MaaS business line will be responsible for “token distribution” as a large-scale model service platform serving enterprise customers. Qwen, Wukong, and the AI Innovation Team will focus on “Token Applications” and compete for AI entry points for consumer and enterprise users.
The move also marks the official announcement of the Wukong unit, positioned as a B-side AI native work platform that deeply integrates model capabilities into enterprise workflows, and signifies Alibaba’s efforts to compete in the B-side AI application market. The new AI Innovation team will focus on applying AI in segmented scenarios and innovating product formats to accelerate validation and time-to-market for relevant applications.
By consolidating its AI business around the concept of “tokens” rather than models or computing power, Alibaba may be shifting its focus from pursuing technological leadership to prioritizing explosive commercial use. The “model-as-product” approach is becoming obsolete, and Alibaba believes “models and agents” is a better path to AGI.
Editor: Shihua Tang, Martin Kadyev
