This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) is making its next big AI playthis time, in the physical world. The Chinese tech powerhouse has quietly assembled a new robotics and embodied AI team inside its Qwen division, the same unit that develops Alibaba’s flagship foundation models. Justin Lin, Qwen’s technology lead, revealed the move on X, noting that multimodal models capable of processing text, sound, and images are being built into foundation agents designed to bridge the virtual and physical worlds.
CEO Eddie Wu has been vocal about where this is heading. He expects global AI investment to accelerate toward roughly $4 trillion over the next five years, and Alibaba wants a front-row seat. The company recently led a $140 million funding round in Chinese robotics firm X Square Robotone of several moves positioning it at the intersection of AI software and intelligent hardware.
The timing couldn’t be sharper. Global tech majors like Nvidia Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp. are betting heavily on robotics as the next trillion-dollar frontier. SoftBank this week announced a $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB Ltd.’s industrial robot business, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has described robotics as a multitrillion-dollar opportunity. For Alibaba, this expansion could be more than an experimentit could be the bridge that transforms its AI ecosystem from pure code to physical intelligence.