Advertisement
Artificial intelligence
TechBig Tech

Alibaba seeks growth from AI co-development programme targeting industrial clients, cuts prices on cloud services

  • Earlier this month, Alibaba Cloud made its large language model accessible to customers and developers to create customised AI features
  • The company has restricted its AI model to corporate customers only, with more than 200,000 enterprises submitting requests since April 11

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
The Alibaba Cloud logo is seen displayed on a smartphone in this photo illustration. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Tracy Quin Shanghai

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and cloud computing unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, is seeking revenue growth from its large language models (LLMs) through a new artificial intelligence (AI) co-development programme for industrial customers, and by implementing sizeable price cuts on its cloud services.

The cloud unit announced on Wednesday its Tongyi Qianwen Partnership Programme, which aims to co-develop LLMs tailored for different industries. The first set of industrial models will cover sectors including petrochemicals, electricity, transport, hospitality, enterprise services, telecommunications and finance, the Hangzhou-based company said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Alibaba Cloud said it would cut prices for its core products and services in China by 15 per cent to 50 per cent starting May 7.

Daniel Zhang Yong, chairman and chief executive of Alibaba and CEO of Alibaba Cloud, said in a separate statement that the price adjustments were designed to “reduce cloud costs and expand cloud market space”.

Alibaba Cloud remained the top cloud infrastructure services provider in mainland China in 2022, with a 36 per cent share of the US$30.3 billion market, ahead of Huawei Technologies Co, Tencent Holdings and Baidu, according to research firm Canalys.
Under Alibaba’s sweeping reorganisation of its US$257 billion tech empire, the cloud intelligence unit will become one of six independently run entities. Zhang took control of Alibaba Cloud last December after a major service outage in Hong Kong and Macau.

Earlier this month, Alibaba Cloud unveiled its Tongyi Qianwen large language model, saying it would make the new AI model accessible to customers and developers to create customised AI features.

Advertisement