Alibaba’s Qwen Chief Launches New Robotics and Embodied AI Team
Lin Junyang, the head of Alibaba’s Qwen large language model division, announced the formation of a specialized team dedicated to robotics and embodied AI. Speaking on the social media platform X, Lin explained that multimodal foundation models are evolving into sophisticated foundation agents. These agents utilize tools and memory to perform long-horizon reasoning through reinforcement learning, marking a significant shift from virtual interactions to physical world applications. This strategic move underscores Alibaba’s intensifying focus on embodied artificial intelligence. The announcement follows recent aggressive investments by the tech giant, including Alibaba Cloud’s leadership of a $140 million funding round for Chinese robotics startup X Square Robot last month. Furthermore, during the 2025 Yunqi Cloud Summit, Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming highlighted the rapid acceleration of global AI investment, projected to reach $4 trillion over the next five years. He emphasized the necessity for Alibaba to keep pace with this burgeoning trend. The establishment of this new team represents a concrete step in Alibaba’s broader strategy to integrate advanced AI capabilities with physical robotics, positioning the company at the forefront of the next generation of intelligent automated systems.
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Alibaba’s Qwen Chief Launches New Robotics and Embodied AI Team
Lin Junyang, the head of Alibaba’s Qwen large language model division, announced the formation of a specialized team dedicated to robotics and embodied AI. Speaking on the social media platform X, Lin explained that multimodal foundation models are evolving into sophisticated foundation agents. These agents utilize tools and memory to perform long-horizon reasoning through reinforcement learning, marking a significant shift from virtual interactions to physical world applications. This strategic move underscores Alibaba’s intensifying focus on embodied artificial intelligence. The announcement follows recent aggressive investments by the tech giant, including Alibaba Cloud’s leadership of a $140 million funding round for Chinese robotics startup X Square Robot last month. Furthermore, during the 2025 Yunqi Cloud Summit, Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming highlighted the rapid acceleration of global AI investment, projected to reach $4 trillion over the next five years. He emphasized the necessity for Alibaba to keep pace with this burgeoning trend. The establishment of this new team represents a concrete step in Alibaba’s broader strategy to integrate advanced AI capabilities with physical robotics, positioning the company at the forefront of the next generation of intelligent automated systems.
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