At the Alipay AI Payment Ecosystem Conference held on May 26, the AI industry witnessed a significant turning point. Leading domestic large model companies MiniMax and StepZen officially announced a strategic partnership with Alipay, and multiple AI-native products from both sides will be fully integrated into Alipay's customized "AI Payment Full-Stack Solution."

1. Strong Alliance: AI Agents Open the Commercialization Loop

This collaboration marks a deep integration between top AI large model manufacturers and financial payment infrastructure. By accessing Alipay's customized solution, MiniMax and StepZen's AI products have removed bottlenecks in the following commercialization key paths:

  • Token Recharge and Billing: To address the massive and frequent call demands of large model inference, Alipay provides a customized settlement channel, ensuring seamless integration between AI computing power services and payment settlement.

  • Automated Membership Subscriptions: It offers users convenient AI membership subscription management, automatically completing renewals and benefit upgrades through algorithmic demand prediction.

  • AI Marketing Loop: Relying on Alipay's digital ecosystem, agents can conduct precise marketing campaigns based on user preferences and complete orders directly within conversation scenarios.

2. Empowering the Ecosystem: Alipay Builds the "Business Hub" of the AI Era

With the addition of MiniMax and StepZen, Alipay is not only a payment tool but also the underlying commercial operating system for AI-native applications (Agents). Currently, Alipay supports 95% of general agent frameworks, with over 300 million intelligent agent payment orders completed, making it the first in the world to achieve large-scale commercial use of AI-native payment infrastructure.

Its customized full-stack solution includes:

  • Token Pay Service: A micro-amount, high-frequency settlement protocol specifically designed for large model agents.

  • AI Wallet: Grants agents independent commercial capabilities, enabling AI to autonomously complete complex payment logic.

3. Scenario Expansion: Automotive Alliances Help "In-Car AI Pay" Take Off

In addition to the participation of large model providers, this conference also showcased the broad vision of AI payments in industrial and mobility scenarios. Seven major automotive giants, including Geely, BAIC, Li Auto, Chery, Deep Blue, Dongfeng Lifan, and Hyundai, have announced their integration into "In-Car AI Pay."

This means that future vehicles are not just transportation tools but mobile "financial terminals." The built-in agents in the car will be able to use Alipay to automatically execute parking fees, energy refueling, and toll road payments without human intervention, achieving true "connected car life with automatic payments."

Industry Commentary: The "Last Mile" of Large Models

Industry experts pointed out that for large model providers like MiniMax and StepZen, high-quality underlying technology needs to be adapted to efficient commercialization paths. The AI payment solution provided by Alipay precisely addresses the friction costs in "paying subscriptions" and "high-frequency interactions" for agents. Through this collaboration, it not only injects strong commercial momentum into the domestic AI industry but also provides the most important value exchange channel for agents to truly serve various industries.