A chip built to be clustered
Alibaba Group used its Apsara Conference in Hangzhou to unveil the Zhenwu V900, an AI processor designed by its T-Head semiconductor unit. CEO Eddie Wu said the chip delivers three times the performance of its predecessor, the M890, which launched in May. The V900 can be linked in clusters of up to 500,000 processors to train and run the largest models. Alibaba plans mass production and commercial shipping in the first quarter of 2027, and Wu said the company expects big growth in annual AI chip shipments.
Bigger Qwen models on the way
The company also said future versions of its Qwen family could hold 5 trillion to 10 trillion parameters, up from 2.4 trillion for the current flagship Qwen 3.8 Max. Parameter counts are only a rough measure of ability, and a larger model is not automatically a better one. Wu said the goal is to handle more complex and longer-term tasks. Alibaba also set a target for Alibaba Cloud's global data centre capacity to pass 20 gigawatts by 2032.
Why it matters
Chinese technology companies are racing to build domestic alternatives to Nvidia's AI processors as US export restrictions tighten. Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares rose 5.1% to their highest level in a month after the announcement. The launch came days before a meeting between Chinese and US leaders where competition over AI is expected to be a major theme. For cloud customers, the pitch is a full stack: silicon, models and a rebuilt platform aimed at autonomous AI agents.
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