Alibaba has initiated a major reorganization of its cloud computing division, appointing experienced individuals to head up the division, aiming to bring it back to life after it dropped plans for a public offering.The Chinese giant will increase its concentration on three sub-branches of the cloud domain - public cloud, hybrid cloud and cloud infrastructure.Furthermore, the company seeks to place greater attention on artificial intelligence in the cloud, since AI applications necessitate an abundance of computing power, something cloud computing companies can provide.
Alibaba has launched an overhaul of its cloud computing unit, appointing veterans in new leadership roles, with the aim of reinvigorating the division following the cancellation of its public listing. This action emphasizes the Chinese technology giant's wish to capitalize on the surge in AI that is dependent on the infrastructure provided by cloud providers. Alibaba has given additional focus to three separate divisions in the cloud segment – public cloud, hybrid cloud and cloud infrastructure – all of which had previously been in existence. However, the company has now installed executives responsible for managing these divisions and who answer to the highest levels of the firm.
Weiguang Liu and Jin Li, who will both report to Alibaba's group CEO Eddie Wu, will respectively lead the public cloud and hybrid cloud divisions, according to a source close to the matter who spoke to CNBC anonymously. Jiangwei Jiang will lead the cloud infrastructure unit, and will be answerable to Chief Technology Officer Jingren Zhou, the source added.The three cloud business leaders are all veteran Alibaba employees. When asked for a comment on the matter, Alibaba was not immediately available.Chinese publication Leifeng initially reported the news. Not long ago, the tech giant cancelled the much-anticipated IPO of its cloud unit, resulting in their market value dropping by over $20 billion.Previously, Alibaba underwent its biggest reshuffle to date as it carved the firm into six business divisions. This prompted Daniel Zhang to step down from the position of CEO in September, followed by his resignation from the role of head of the cloud business a few weeks later.These days, Alibaba is facing mounting rivalry in China's cloud market, notably in the pursuit of customers in the government and state-owned enterprise sectors. Last week, Wu announced that the company will place more emphasis on the public cloud, used for corporate clients in China, as opposed to the governmental ones.It is predicted that the demand for cloud computing services will be driven by AI, as it demands a great deal of computing power that only cloud computing companies can provide. It is in this capacity that Alibaba hopes to capitalize, as Wu stated: "The cloud intelligence group will resolutely implement a strategy of driving growth with AI and of prioritizing public cloud. It will scale up its technology investments in AI-related software and hardware."
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