Alibaba Launches Robotics Team to Advance Multimodal AI Integration

Alibaba has launched a specialized robotics and embodied AI team within its Qwen division, led by executive Justin Lin, marking a strategic move to integrate its advanced multimodal AI models into physical, real-world applications. This new robotics group aims to transform foundational AI models, which already process text, speech, images, and video, into intelligent agents capable of long-sequence reasoning and bridging virtual and physical realms. Alibaba's Qwen3 Omni models, which support extensive language and voice options, have demonstrated strong multimodal capabilities, outperforming Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash in speech reasoning but still trailing OpenAI's GPT-4o. The company's CEO, Eddie Wu, anticipates global AI investments to reach approximately $4 trillion within five years, signaling Alibaba's intention to secure a significant position in the AI and robotics sectors. Alibaba's recent $140 million investment in Chinese robotics firm X Square Robot and partnerships with Nvidia further highlight its commitment to converging AI software with intelligent hardware. Meanwhile, financial analysts project continued growth in Alibaba's core businesses, including cloud services and e-commerce, despite some earnings pressures, underscoring the company's expanding influence in both digital and physical AI domains.