Alibaba forms 'Token Foundry Division' to accelerate AI commercialization

Alibaba has announced a major AI organizational restructuring, merging its Tongyi Large Model Division and Future Life Laboratory into a new 'Token Foundry Division' (Token Foundry). The division will be led directly by Group CEO Wu Yongming, marking a significant escalation in the company's AI strategy. The move follows two earlier restructurings in 2026 that established the AlibabaTokenHub (ATH) Business Group and the Group Technology Committee. The name 'Token Foundry' reflects Alibaba's ambition to become a foundational supplier of tokens for the AI industry, shifting from internal resource integration to rapid commercialization.

Zhou Jingren, the founding figure of Alibaba's Qianwen system, has been appointed as the group's Chief Scientist and will lead the newly established Alibaba AI Future Research Institute. Meanwhile, Zheng Bo, former head of the Future Life Laboratory, will bring star products like HappyHorse and HappyOyster under the Token Foundry umbrella. HappyHorse recently gained attention by topping the global AI blind-testing platform ArtificialAnalysis in both text-to-video and image-to-video tracks. This integration aims to eliminate duplication and internal competition, particularly as the Agent era demands closer collaboration between model teams and business logic, enabling autonomous workflow execution.