March 5, 2026, Alibaba's CEO, Wu Yongming, confirmed in an internal email that he had approved the resignation of Lin Junyang, the core member of the Tongyi Lab and head of Qwen (Qianwen). Earlier on the morning of March 4, Lin Junyang officially announced his resignation on the social platform X with the message "Goodbye, my dear Qwen," which drew widespread attention in the industry. Notably, just before his departure on the evening of March 3, Lin Junyang's team had just released the Qwen3.5 small model, whose performance even received public praise from Elon Musk.

Tongyi Qwen (7) Qianwen

Lin Junyang's departure did not slow down Alibaba's efforts in the field of large models. In the email, Wu Yongming clearly stated that the subsequent work of the Tongyi Lab would be led by Zhou Jingren. To further strengthen technical barriers, Alibaba announced the establishment of a Basic Model Support Team, co-ordinated by Wu Yongming, Zhou Jingren, and Fan Yu, to ensure the strategic priority of basic model development. This personnel and organizational restructuring reflects Alibaba's sense of urgency in the field of artificial intelligence, where "if you don't move forward, you fall behind."

Against the backdrop of global AI competition entering deeper waters, Alibaba reiterated its commitment to the open-source model strategy and continues to increase R&D investment and talent recruitment. The movement of key talents and the upgrading of the organizational structure indicate that leading domestic manufacturers are transitioning from "individual heroism" to "group warfare." The evolution of foundational large models has become a key strategy for enterprises facing the future, and Alibaba is trying to maintain its first-mover advantage in the fierce competition of computing power and algorithms through direct intervention at the top level of resources.