Alibaba

Alibaba is one of China’s largest technology companies, spanning e-commerce, cloud computing and digital payments. Through its cloud division it is also a major developer of AI models, several of which it has released as open-weight systems.

Alibaba appears in AI news both as a model builder and as a large corporate user of AI tools. In one notable case it barred its own staff from using a rival’s coding assistant, a small example of how companies increasingly treat the AI tools their employees use as a strategic and security question, not just a productivity one.

As a cloud provider, Alibaba’s choices influence which AI models are widely available across Asia and beyond.