Who's who · Chinese labs
Qwen (Alibaba)
Alibaba's AI model team, maker of the widely used Qwen open-weight models and the Qwen app.
At a glance
- Founded
- April 2023
- Based in
- Hangzhou, China
- People
- Zhou Jingren, Head of Tongyi Lab; Eddie Wu, Chief executive, Alibaba Group
- Known for
- Qwen3.8-Max, Qwen3.5, Qwen app, Qwen Book
- Licence
- Apache 2.0 for most open-weight models
- Funding
- Part of Alibaba Group (Public: NYSE BABA, HKEX 9988)
- Parent
- Alibaba Group
- Open-model downloads
- More than 600 million (March 2026)
- Website
- https://qwen.ai
Qwen is the family of AI models built by Alibaba's Tongyi Lab, and the name of the team behind them. The team began work on Qwen in April 2023. Qwen models cover text, coding, images, audio and translation, and power Alibaba Cloud's AI services, the Qwen assistant and new devices such as the Qwen Book, an agentic computer (one whose AI can carry out tasks on the user's behalf) announced in September 2026.
Qwen is one of the most downloaded open-weight model families in the world, with more than 600 million downloads by March 2026. Most open-weight releases use the Apache 2.0 licence. Qwen3.5 came out as open weights in February 2026. The current top model is Qwen3.8-Max, and Alibaba says Qwen 4 is in training.
In March 2026 technical lead Junyang Lin and other senior researchers left the team. Zhou Jingren continues to lead Tongyi Lab, and Alibaba chief executive Eddie Wu set up a foundation model task force, which includes both men, to coordinate the group's AI resources.
Sources
- Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Cloud's 2026 Apsara Conference: Full-Stack AI Roadmap, 2026-09-25
- TechNode Global, Alibaba unveils Qwen Book agentic computer and AI wearables at Apsara 2026, 2026-09-24
- TechCrunch, Alibaba's Qwen tech lead steps down after major AI push, 2026-03-03
- VentureBeat, Did Alibaba just kneecap its powerful Qwen AI team? Key figures depart in wake of latest open source release, 2026-03-04
Facts last checked 2026-10-02