Hangzhou — Alibaba Group is intensifying its artificial-intelligence push with a new generation of AI hardware and plans to develop significantly larger versions of its Qwen model family.
The Chinese technology company said it is working toward future AI models containing between 5 trillion and 10 trillion parameters, potentially making them as much as four times larger than its current flagship model.
Alibaba also unveiled the Zhenwu V900, an AI processor developed by its T-Head semiconductor division. The company called the processor China’s most powerful AI chip.
The announcements came during Alibaba Cloud’s annual Apsara conference in Hangzhou, highlighting the company’s effort to build a broader AI ecosystem spanning models, semiconductors and data-centre infrastructure.
Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares climbed 5.1% on Tuesday, reaching their highest level in a month.
Chief Executive Eddie Wu said the Qwen team was developing models designed to handle more complex tasks over longer periods. Alibaba’s current flagship, Qwen 3.8 Max, contains 2.4 trillion parameters.
The company said it is training its next-generation Qwen 4 model, while future Qwen 4.5 and Qwen 5 models are expected to expand toward the 5 trillion-to-10 trillion-parameter range.
Alibaba is also seeking to strengthen its semiconductor capabilities in China as technology companies look for alternatives to Nvidia processors amid tighter U.S. export restrictions.
According to Alibaba, the Zhenwu V900 offers three times the performance of its predecessor, the M890. The processor can be linked into clusters of up to 500,000 chips for training and running large-scale AI systems.
Mass production and commercial availability of the V900 are planned for the first quarter of 2027. Alibaba also expects shipments of its AI chips to grow significantly each year.
The company has set a target of more than 20 gigawatts of global data-centre capacity for Alibaba Cloud by 2032.
Alibaba executives said demand for AI services was exceptionally strong and was helping accelerate revenue growth in the cloud business. However, supply-chain constraints were restricting how quickly the company could add capacity.
The moves demonstrate how China’s largest technology companies are working to establish complete AI supply chains that cover computing hardware, foundation models and the data-centre infrastructure needed to operate them.
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