Alibaba recruits Google DeepMind contributor to join Qwen AI team, sources say

South China Morning PostCenter-RightEN 1 min read 100% complete by Vincent ChowMarch 4, 2026 at 03:36 PM

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Alibaba Group has recruited Zhou Hao, a former Google DeepMind research scientist, to lead post-training research for its Qwen AI models. This move follows an internal restructuring that included the departure of previous technical lead Lin Junyang and Yu Bowen. Zhou's expertise from Google, where he contributed to AI products like Gemini 3, is expected to strengthen Alibaba's AI development efforts. Alibaba is aiming to monetize the growing adoption of its Qwen models, including its flagship AI consumer app launched in November. The company recently merged its AI units to streamline its commercial strategy, which now includes the Qwen app and AI glasses. Lin Junyang was a proponent of open-source AI development at Alibaba.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

South China Morning Post 30% DeepSeek 40% University of Wisconsin-Madison 40% China 50% United States 50% Yu Bowen 60% Zhou Hao ×270% Lin Junyang ×270% Qwen ×480% Google DeepMind ×280% Alibaba Group Holding ×790%

Keywords

alibaba 90% artificial intelligence 90% qwen ai 80% google deepmind 70% ai models 70% research scientist 60% ai development 50% open-source ai 50% model weights 40%