Alibaba has initiated a restructuring of its cloud computing division, appointing experienced individuals to key leadership roles in an effort to revitalize the sector following the cancellation of its public offering.
This move underscores the Chinese tech giant’s ambition to leverage the burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) trend, underpinned by cloud infrastructure support.
Alibaba is set to enhance its focus on three core cloud-related segments: people cloud, cross cloud, and cloud infrastructure. Although these units existed previously, Alibaba has now appointed new executives to oversee them, reporting directly to the company’s senior management.
In this restructuring, Jin Li will head the variant cloud unit, while Weiguang Liu will lead the common cloud division, as reported by CNBC. Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba’s category, will supervise both managers.
Jingren Zhou, the chief technology officer of the sky division, will assume leadership of Jiangwei Jinang’s cloud infrastructure unit.
The three professionals leading the sky business units are all former Alibaba employees. The company was not available for immediate comment on this development.
The reshuffle comes on the heels of Alibaba’s surprising decision to scrap the highly anticipated IPO of its cloud division last week, resulting in a significant drop in the company’s market value exceeding $20 billion.
Alibaba recently underwent its most extensive restructuring to date, dividing into six business units. Daniel Zhang stepped down as CEO in September and subsequently resigned as the head of the cloud business a few weeks later.
In the Chinese cloud market, Alibaba faces increasing competition, particularly in its efforts to attract clients from government and state-owned enterprises.
Last week, Wu hinted at a potential shift towards focusing more on the “people cloud,” targeting Chinese enterprises over government entities.
Given the high computational demands of AI applications, Alibaba plans to concentrate on AI within the cloud, aiming to seize this opportunity.
The sky knowledge team is expected to adopt a growth strategy centered on AI and prioritize the people cloud, bolstering its technological assets in AI-related hardware and software, according to Wu.
Looking ahead, the surge in AI demand is anticipated to drive increased cloud computing needs, with a significant portion of AI technology expected to be cloud-based.
