Xiaomi, Alibaba ramp up AI recruitment amid global talent war

Chinese tech giants Xiaomi and Alibaba Group Holding have launched spring recruitment drives amid fierce competition for the talent driving the global artificial intelligence boom.The campaigns come as the smartphone and e-commerce giants, respectively, look to increasingly position themselves as AI-first firms, amid growing commercial pressures in their traditional businesses.In a Weibo post on Monday, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said the company’s global recruitment campaign would target top industry talent, fresh graduates and interns. Its official recruitment website listed more than 200 available positions, in cities that included Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing.Meanwhile, Alibaba announced earlier this month that it would add seven new types of AI-related positions to its campus recruitment this year, including several in the field of agentic AI.AI-related positions account for more than 80 per cent of Alibaba’s open roles, up from around 60 per cent during fall recruitment last year, spanning 16 business units within the group including Alibaba Cloud and chip design unit T-Head.Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.