2025-04-16
From Foundational Computing Power to Front-End Applications: How Alibaba Is Building an “Always-On” Intelligent Engine
The On-site Interactive Area of the 8th Digital China Summit will take place from April 28 to May 4 at the Fuzhou Strait International Conference and Exhibition Center, covering 56,000 square meters. A stellar lineup of participants—including leading central SOEs, Global Fortune 500 enterprises, China’s Top 500, and top industry players—has already confirmed attendance. The event will spotlight a rich array of cutting-edge technologies and groundbreaking innovations, offering a vivid look at how the digital economy is empowering industries across the board. Here’s a first look at the exciting highlights!
From foundational computing power to front-end applications, Alibaba is building an “always-on” intelligent engine driving the future of digital innovation.
As a global leader in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, Alibaba Group will make a high-profile appearance at the Interactive Exhibition Zone of the 8th Digital China Summit with key divisions including Alibaba Cloud, T-Head, DAMO Academy, DingTalk, and 1688. Visitors will witness how AI is reshaping government decision-making, reigniting scientific innovation, and transforming the operation of large-scale events. From foundational computing infrastructure to front-end applications, Alibaba is harnessing cutting-edge technology to power an “always-on” intelligent engine for the Digital China Initiative.
Tongyi Qianwen (Qwen) Model Family
Pioneering Full-Scale, Multi-Modality, and Open-Source Development
As artificial intelligence continues to advance rapidly, large models have become a central focus in the tech world. Developed by Alibaba, the Tongyi Qianwen family is one of the world’s leading AI models, pioneering full-scale, multi-modal capabilities and broad open-source availability.
Foundation models are often considered the “crown jewels” of AI. The Tongyi foundation model family includes the large language model Qwen, along with multimodal understanding models—Qwen-VL (which enables the model to “see”) and Qwen-Audio (which allows it to “hear”)—as well as multimodal generation models. These innovations have transformed reasoning models from “liberal arts majors” into “all-rounders,” making a significant impact on science and technology. On March 6, Alibaba released the Qwen QwQ-32B reasoning model, which not only maintains strong performance but also significantly reduces deployment costs. From “understanding the world” to “comprehending the world in all dimensions,” Qwen’s multimodal understanding and reasoning capabilities are now recognized as being world-leading. Launched on March 28, the QVQ-Max model is a multimodal visual reasoning model that supports joint inference across images, videos, and text. It enables models not only to “see”, but also to “understand” and “think more comprehensively”.
Notably, more than 100,000 derivative models have been developed through secondary training on Qwen, supporting 30 languages worldwide and earning widespread popularity among global developers.
Advanced Scenario Applications
AI Brings the Future Within Reach
Technology truly reveals its value when applied in real-world scenarios. At the On-site Interactive Area of the Digital China Summit, Alibaba will demonstrate how AI is transforming production and daily life through a series of cutting-edge applications.
AI + Spring Festival Gala: A Symphony of Technology and Art
The 2025 CCTV Spring Festival Gala was live-streamed globally via Alibaba Cloud. On the main stage, Alibaba Cloud’s Tongyi large model technology brought the iconic “bullet time” effect from sci-fi films to life. Using a “sky-surround perspective”, the system captured the martial arts performance led by Donnie Yen in The Ink Brush Dragon, offering viewers an immersive experience with aerial surround views and time-suspended effects.
AI + Scientific Research: Intelligent Exploration from Sky to Sea
Alibaba Cloud is collaborating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to redefine scientific research paradigms through AI. At the National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, scientists use the “Jinwu” Solar Foundation Model powered by the QwQ-32B model, to accurately predict solar flares. At the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, CAS, the “Yaohua” large model has achieved an 88% accuracy rate in coral species recognition, increasing efficiency by dozens of times compared to manual methods.
AI Stack All-in-One Model Appliance: Enabling Seamless Large Model Deployment
At this year’s summit, Alibaba Cloud is unveiling its AI Stack for the first time—an integrated, lightweight, and cost-effective AI solution designed for enterprise customers. Already deployed across sectors such as government, energy, and healthcare, AI Stack enables users to deploy large models out of the box, effectively addressing key requirements for data security, cost-efficiency, and operational simplicity.
