Alibaba Integrates Organizational Structure and Establishes Token Foundry Division

As the AI race enters its second half, Alibaba is rapidly restructuring. On June 8, the company announced a major strategic upgrade: merging the Tongyi Large Model Business Unit with the Future Life Lab to create the new Token Foundry Business Unit. Directly overseen by Group CEO Wu Yongming, this move signals that Alibaba’s AI strategy has reached the highest level of executive decision-making.

This restructuring is more than a simple merger; it represents a profound business transformation. The core strengths of the former Tongyi Large Model Business Unit will be integrated with AI lines like Happy Horse and Happy Oyster into Token Foundry, fostering deep collaboration between model capabilities and application scenarios. Meanwhile, Alibaba Chief Scientist Zhang Jingren will lead the AI Future Research Institute, focusing on original innovation and breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies.

Alibaba’s recent actions reveal an accelerating “AI flywheel.” From the establishment of the Alibaba Token Hub business group in March, which includes the Tongyi Lab and MaaS business line, to the creation of the Group Technology Committee and the upgrade of the Tongyi Large Model Business Unit in April, and now the launch of Token Foundry, Alibaba has been continuously aggregating strengths through a series of “small steps and fast runs.” These organizational changes aim to secure an advantage in the critical battlefield of AI—the synergy between model capabilities and application implementation.

Wu Yongming has repeatedly emphasized that Alibaba’s core moat in the AI era lies in building the “most intelligent” models and driving application scenarios across all industries. Through the coordination between Token Foundry and Token Hub, Alibaba aims to bridge the bidirectional influence between models and applications, accelerating the self-evolution of model capabilities via closed-loop feedback from MaaS (Model as a Service).

Commercial performance validates this strategy. In their shareholder letter, Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai and Wu Yongming stated that Alibaba’s AI business has moved beyond the initial phase of “investment without output” and has officially entered a commercial return cycle. Data provides direct proof: in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, Alibaba Cloud’s external commercial revenue growth rate increased significantly, while revenue from AI-related products has achieved triple-digit growth for eleven consecutive quarters. Alibaba expects that the annual recurring revenue (ARR) of AI model and application services, including the Bailian MaaS platform alone, will exceed 30 billion yuan by the end of this year.

Technically, Alibaba has also delivered impressive results. The Qwen-3.7 series models have gained industry recognition for their leading programming capabilities, while the HappyHorse-1.0 model has outperformed competitors on the global authoritative AI blind testing platform, Artificial Analysis, topping both text-to-video and image-to-video categories.

With further structural consolidation, Alibaba has established a “full-stack technology system” spanning underlying computing power, cloud infrastructure, large model foundations, and upper-level native AI software. Enhanced organizational cohesion and a clear commercialization path send a clear message to the outside world: Alibaba is fully committed to redefining business boundaries through AI technology, striving to secure key positions in the global AI competition.