(Yicai) June 9 -- Alibaba Group Holding has set up Token Foundry, a new business unit that is the Chinese internet giant’s latest move in tightening its artificial intelligence organization after forming Alibaba Token Hub earlier this year.

Token Foundry brings the Tongyi Large Model BU and Future Life Lab, from Alibaba's e-commerce unit Taobao and Tmall Group, under one roof, the Hangzhou-based company announced yesterday. Just as with Alibaba Token Hub, it will be overseen directly by Chief Executive Eddie Wu.

Zheng Bo, chief scientist at Taobao and Tmall, will bring Alibaba’s two latest AI models HappyHorse and HappyOyster, both launched in April, into Token Foundry.

HappyHorse is a video generation model that after its release quickly topped the Video Arena leaderboard of leading independent AI benchmarking and insights company Artificial Analysis. HappyOyster allows users to build and interact with digital worlds in real time.

Alibaba said Alibaba Token Hub and Token Foundry will enable its foundation models, apps, and Model-as-a-Service capabilities reinforce one another more effectively, fortifying the company’s AI competitiveness.

Alibaba Token Hub was formed in March around the goal of creating, delivering, and applying tokens and comprises Tongyi Lab, the MaaS business line, Qwen, Wukong and the AI Innovation division. Alibaba said it would stand alongside e-commerce and cloud services as one of its core business pillars.

Alibaba also moved in April to accelerate AI development by creating a group-level technology committee and promoting Tongyi Lab to the Tongyi Large Model BU. Wu chairs the committee, which also includes Chief AI Architect Zhou Jingren, Chief Technology Officer Wu Zeming and Alibaba Cloud CTO Li Feifei.

In the same statement yesterday, Alibaba said Zhou had been promoted to chief scientist and will lead the establishment of the AI Future Research Institute, which will focus on cutting-edge AI research and breakthroughs.

In the three months ended March 31, Alibaba’s AI product revenue reached CNY9 billion (USD1.3 billion), extending a streak of triple-digit year-on-year growth to 11 straight quarters, its most recent financial report revealed. The AI business has entered a phase of commercial return, the company noted.

Editor: Martin Kadiev