Alibaba set for AI leap with Qwen and next-gen chip

RTHK - Sep 22, 2026

The Alibaba Group plans to train a new artificial intelligence model with between five trillion and 10 trillion parameters, chief executive Eddie Wu said on Tuesday, as the Chinese technology giant outlined ⁠a sweeping strategy encompassing AI models, chips and data centres. Speaking at Alibaba Cloud's annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, he said the company's Qwen team was continuing research into model architecture and data optimisation, with the goal of completing "more complex, longer-horizon tasks" and advancing towards artificial superintelligence, or ASI. In a separate statement, Alibaba said its next-generation model, Qwen 4, was currently in training, adding that the upcoming Qwen 4.5 and Qwen 5 series were projected to scale up to five trillion to 10 trillion parameters. Parameters are the variables a model learns during training and are a rough gauge of its size. Alibaba's current flagship ⁠model, Qwen 3.8 Max, has 2.4 trillion parameters, meaning the planned model would be roughly two to four times larger. Wu said Alibaba's proprietary M890 AI supernode already handles inference for models above two trillion parameters, a capability he said only "a handful of companies globally" possess. The Qwen team has made "meaningful progress" on recursive self-improvement, in which models identify their own limitations, design experiments and...

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Alibaba set for AI leap with Qwen and next-gen chip

MORE NEWS

33% of Filipinos expect economy to improve in next 12 months – SWS

House wraps deliberations on P785.2-M OVP budget without queries

Korea's aviation industry undergoes major M&A shakeup

In AI-augmented legal market, clients will judge firms by final results: BKL chief

Lee approves appointments of finance, defense, land minister nominees

President Lee arrives in New York to attend UN General Assembly

N. Korea says tested new weapon system earlier this week

Confirmation hearing report adopted for SME minister nominee

PM stresses importance of police roles under new law enforcement system

N. Korea's Kim calls for modernizing ideological tactics

President Lee plans to call for phased denuclearization of N. Korea at UN

FM Cho meets US senators to discuss alliance, Korean Peninsula issues

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