- Restructuring merges Tongyi large model and Future Life Lab businesses, with CEO Wu Yongming overseeing the new unit
- Chief scientist Zhou Jingren to lead Alibaba AI Future Research Institute, focusing on next-generation AI technologies
Alibaba Group has merged its Tongyi large model unit and Future Life Lab to form a new Token Foundry division, the company announced June 8.
The newly created division will report directly to CEO Eddie Wu Yongming (吴泳铭), underscoring the company’s intensified focus on AI.
Zhou Jingren (周靖人), until recently head of the tech titan’s large model unit, has been named Alibaba’s chief scientist and will lead the newly established Alibaba AI Future Research Institute, dedicated to exploring cutting-edge AI technologies.
Key figure behind Qwen
Zhou, a key figure in building the Tongyi team from scratch and elevating the Qwen series to a leading global position, became an Alibaba partner last year.
He was appointed Alibaba’s chief AI architect in April 2026 and nominated to the group’s technology committee chaired by CEO Wu.
“The appointment recognizes Zhou’s contributions and marks a strategic move toward future AI capabilities,” an internal source said.
A Google alumnus
Alongside Zhou, Zheng Bo (郑波), currently CTO of Alibaba Mama and chief scientist at TaoTian Group, will bring his teams—including HappyHorse and HappyOyster—into Token Foundry.
Zheng, a Tsinghua University graduate with a PhD in computer science, previously spent 11 years at Google, leading the display advertising algorithms team and China Maps team before joining Alibaba in 2017.
The organizational shift comes amid rapid growth of Alibaba’s Qwen-3.7 model, which ranks among the top three globally for coding capabilities and first in China, gaining traction among developers and enterprise clients.
Ongoing alignment
This latest organizationl reshuffle marks the latest in a series of high-frequency adjustments to Alibaba’s AI structure.
Just two months ago, CEO Wu announced the formation of the Tongyi large model unit, reflecting ongoing efforts to align AI production capabilities with organizational design in the era of intelligent agents.
Earlier, in mid-March, Alibaba created a token hub unit under Wu’s strategy of a systemic pivot toward the era of AI agents, laying the groundwork for its current reorganization.
