On March 5, there was a key development in the personnel adjustments within the Tongyi Qianwen team at Alibaba. Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming announced through an internal email that the group has officially approved Lin Junyang's resignation from his positions, and simultaneously decided to establish a "Basic Model Support Team" to strengthen the unified coordination and support of large model R&D resources at the group level. This organizational adjustment is seen as a structural optimization in Alibaba's large model R&D system, aiming to improve the efficiency of basic model R&D and enhance internal collaboration capabilities.

Tongyi Qwen (5) Qianwen

At the same time, competition for top AI talent also rapidly intensified. Several AI institutions have publicly extended invitations to former team members, including Zhipu AI and Google DeepMind. Relevant officials even openly expressed their welcome to members of the Qianwen team on social platforms, showing the industry's high attention to core large model R&D talent.

As an important part of Alibaba's large model system, the Tongyi Qianwen team has, in recent years, taken on the core tasks of building the group's generative AI capabilities. The departure of key members and the organizational restructuring have drawn significant market attention in the short term, while also reflecting that the current competition in large models has entered a talent-intensive phase.

With the ongoing intensification of global generative AI competition, leading tech companies are increasingly vying for top algorithm engineers and model researchers. Industry experts generally believe that the recent talent movement and organizational adjustments surrounding the Qianwen team not only represent a restructuring of the company's internal R&D system, but also reflect that the competition in the field of AI foundational models is expanding from technology and computing power to core talent.