Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) announced Tuesday that it is reorganizing to turn its Qwen family of artificial intelligence models into a consumer-facing force.
- Alibaba shares are showing limited movement. What’s ahead for BABA stock?
The move comes even as it quietly presses Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) for the chips needed to train and scale those services.
On Tuesday, Alibaba created the Qwen Consumer Business Group, led by vice president Wu Jia, to combine its chatbot app, Quark assistant, cloud drive, AI hardware, and other consumer products under one unit. It is a clear bid to make Qwen the company's "super app" for phones, PCs, cars, and wearable devices.
Also Read: Alibaba's New AI App Qwen Becomes One Of Fastest-Growing Globally
What Will The New Division Do?
Alibaba Cloud has spent two years pushing Qwen into the open-source mainstream, and the relaunch of the Qwen app this fall racked up millions of beta downloads, SCMP reported on Wednesday.
The new division will accelerate efforts to package Qwen into polished consumer experiences — from AI-powered search and content to voice assistants in smart glasses — while bringing hardware and software teams closer together to speed product development.
But scaling those ambitions exposes Alibaba to a thorny new challenge of access to high-end AI training chips.
Nvidia Chips Crisis
After U.S. President Donald Trump said the H200 could be exported to China, Alibaba and other Chinese tech giants, including ByteDance, approached Nvidia about buying the more powerful H200 processors, according to people briefed on the talks, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The H200 substantially outpaces earlier chips marketed for China.
It would help firms train large models faster, yet Nvidia is still producing only limited volumes as it focuses on its newest Blackwell and Rubin lines.
Chinese regulators have not settled on whether to permit broad H200 imports.
For Alibaba, that regulatory uncertainty matters more than ever.
The Qwen Consumer Business Group aims not only to deploy chat and assistant software but also to embed AI into hardware, including glasses and in-car systems, that will rely on model training and cloud computing.
According to the SCMP report, limited access to top-tier training GPUs could slow roadmap timelines or force Alibaba to lean harder on partners, cloud providers, and domestic silicon alternatives.
Alibaba stock gained 84% year-to-date.
BABA Price Action: Alibaba Gr Hldgs shares were up 0.72% at $157.08 during premarket trading on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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