Alibaba has built an "internal central bank" for tokens.
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Author | Huang Yu
Alibaba is signaling its determination to fully commit to the AI Agent era with a major organizational restructuring.
According to Wallstreetcn, on March 16, Alibaba officially announced the establishment of the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group, aimed at building a new organization with the core goals of "creating Tokens, delivering Tokens, and applying Tokens," directly overseen by CEO Wu Yongming.
In an internal letter, Wu Yongming stated that we are on the eve of an AGI explosion. A massive amount of digital work will be handled by tens of billions of AI Agents, which will be powered by Tokens generated from models, becoming the main vehicle for interaction between humans and the digital world. In light of this historic opportunity, Alibaba Group has decided to officially establish the ATH business group.
This move marks Alibaba's intent to build a unified "Token Scheduling Center," fully supporting the development of AI core business units.
The establishment of the new business group coincides with the imminent release of Alibaba's enterprise-level AI Agent product.
According to Bloomberg, Alibaba may release a new enterprise-level AI Agent application as soon as this week, developed by the DingTalk team, which can help businesses automate computer, browser, and cloud server operations, and comes with built-in enterprise data security features.
Alibaba responded to Wallstreetcn, stating that its flagship AI to B application will soon be launched. Wallstreetcn also learned that the DingTalk team will hold a product launch event on March 17, most likely for this enterprise-level AI Agent application.
This organizational adjustment comes at a critical juncture in Alibaba's accelerating AI strategy. Wu Yongming previously made clear that General Artificial Intelligence (AGI) is now the company's top goal and pledged to invest more than $53 billion in the AI field. This Thursday, Alibaba will announce its latest quarterly earnings, and the market will further scrutinize the growth potential of its AI business.
ATH Covers the Entire AI Chain, Wukong Business Unit Debuts
The Alibaba Token Hub business group integrates five business lines, covering the complete layout from underlying models to application endpoints: Tongyi Lab is responsible for multimodal foundational model R&D and pushing model capability limits; the MaaS business line builds an open model service platform to support the broader AI ecosystem; the Qianwen business unit focuses on personal AI assistants; the AI Innovation business unit explores new models and markets; and the Wukong business unit is a new department making its public debut in this adjustment.
The Wukong business unit is positioned as a "B-side AI-native work platform," aiming to deeply embed model capabilities into enterprise workflows. This means that after launching the Qianwen App for C-end users last year, and this month becoming one of the first Chinese tech companies to launch the OpenClaw application for smartphone users, Alibaba is officially extending the battlefield to the B-end AI application market.
In the internal announcement sent to all employees, Wu Yongming characterized the current moment as "the eve of an AGI explosion," noting that massive amounts of digital work will be undertaken by "tens of billions of AI Agents" powered by model-generated Tokens.
This statement outlines the logic behind the ATH's naming: Tokens are the basic fuel for AI Agents, and building a complete ecosystem around the creation, transmission, and application of Tokens is Alibaba's core response to this historic opportunity.
Competing for the AI Agent Market, Alibaba Accelerates to Make Up for Its B-side Shortcomings
The implementation of ATH and the imminent launch of enterprise-level AI Agent products are Alibaba's proactive moves in response to the current market landscape. Right now, AI Agents capable of helping users automatically perform complex tasks are causing a global sensation, and competition among Chinese tech companies for AI Agents is heating up.
According to Bloomberg, Alibaba's enterprise-level Agent product aims to provide more powerful Agent capabilities than OpenClaw, with enhanced features for enterprise data security. The company also plans to gradually integrate its existing B-end business services such as Taobao, Alipay, and Alibaba Cloud into this product to create a differentiated service loop. For now, the pricing model and initial integration details of this product remain unclear.
From an overall strategy perspective, the structure of the ATH business group divides Alibaba's AI business into three layers: Tongyi Lab and the MaaS business line constitute the model supply side, Qianwen and Wukong cover C-end and B-end application demand, while the AI Innovation business unit retains room for rapid experimentation. Compared to the previous relatively independent operation of each business line, the new structure achieves unified strategic scheduling at the CEO level.
As earnings season approaches, the commercial results delivered by this organizational restructuring will become an important reference for investors assessing the credibility of Alibaba's AI strategy.
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