TECH

Alibaba’s AI Model Chief Resigns

Published: Mar. 4, 2026 7:11 p.m. GMT+8

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Lin Junyang.

Lin Junyang, a technical leader of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Qwen AI model team, has resigned, marking a significant personnel change for the Chinese tech giant that is betting big on the technology.

Lin, who joined Alibaba in 2019, said on Wednesday in a post on X that he was “stepping down” from the project, without providing further explanation. Yu Bowen, who headed post-training for Qwen, also resigned on Wednesday. That follows the departure of Hui Binyuan, a staff research scientist focused on coding, in January.

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Lin Junyang, technical leader of Alibaba's Qwen AI team, and Yu Bowen, post-training head, have resigned, surprising the industry.
Alibaba's Qwen models surpassed 1 billion downloads and the company recently unified its AI branding under the Qwen name.
The Qwen team has experienced several core departures in the past two years, reflecting ongoing restructuring and competition.

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Who’s Who

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is a Chinese tech giant experiencing significant personnel changes within its Qwen AI model team. Key technical leaders, including Lin Junyang, have resigned. These departures occur amidst a restructuring of the Tongyi AI lab, aiming to spin off the Qwen large model team, and a recent unification of Alibaba's AI branding under "Qwen."

Alibaba Cloud: Alibaba Cloud is restructuring the technical team of its Tongyi AI lab, aiming to spin off its Qwen large model, according to a company source. This comes amidst resignations from key personnel, including Lin Junyang, the former head of the Qwen AI model team. Alibaba Cloud is prioritizing AI capabilities in vertical industries and prefers talent focused on applications over solely underlying model capabilities.

Meta: Meta is mentioned in the article as a company that separates pre-training from post-training in their AI models. This practice differs from what Lin Junyang, former head of Alibaba's Qwen AI model team, advocated for, as he pushed for integrating these two aspects. The article suggests that Meta's approach is a common one among companies in the AI industry.

ByteDance: ByteDance is mentioned as a competitor that hired away a former technical head from Alibaba's large model team. This individual, Zhou Chang, joined ByteDance in 2024 to lead the visual multimodal team for their Doubao model. This move led to Alibaba filing a non-compete arbitration against Zhou.

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What Happened When

2019：: Lin Junyang joins Alibaba’s Damo Academy after completing his master’s degree.

2022：: Lin Junyang is appointed head of the Qwen project, reporting to Alibaba Cloud CTO Zhou Jingren.

2024：: Zhou Chang, former technical head of the large model, leaves Alibaba and joins ByteDance to lead the visual multimodal team for the Doubao model.

2025：: Lin Junyang, then 32, is promoted to internal rank P10, becoming the youngest employee to claim the title at Alibaba.

January 2026：: Hui Binyuan, a staff research scientist focused on coding, leaves the Qwen team.

Before March 4, 2026：: Alibaba unifies its AI branding under the name Qwen, covering large models and consumer-facing AI apps.

Monday, March 2, 2026：: The Qwen team releases the open-source Qwen 3.5 small model, and Elon Musk tweets praise for the model.

Wednesday, March 4, 2026：: Lin Junyang announces his resignation from Alibaba’s Qwen AI model team, and Yu Bowen, who headed Qwen post-training, also resigns.

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