Latest news with #WangJian
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba Cloud founder says early innovation doesn't need top-dollar hires: 'What happened in Silicon Valley is not the winning formula'
Paying top dollar for AI talent isn't necessary for true innovation, said Alibaba Cloud's founder. "The only thing you need to do is to get the right person," Wang Jian said in an interview with Bloomberg. "What happened in Silicon Valley is not the winning formula," he added. True innovation doesn't come from highly paid engineers, but from finding the right people to build the unknown, said the founder of Alibaba's cloud and AI unit. "The only thing you need to do is to get the right person," Wang Jian said in an interview with Bloomberg published Monday. "Not really the expensive person because if it's a new business, if it's true innovation, that basically means talent," he added. Wang, who built Alibaba Cloud in 2009, said American tech giants are "very much focused on the existing success of the business." "And existing — it's average of technology," the computer scientist said. "We have a tremendous opportunity to look at technology nobody knows today." "What happened in Silicon Valley is not the winning formula," Wang said. Wang's comments come after Big Tech companies are paying top dollar to recruit elite AI talent, a trend that's likened to sports franchises competing for superstar athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo. The competition reached another level when Meta recruited Scale's CEO, Alexandr Wang, last month as part of a $14.3 billion deal to take a 49% stake in his company. Then, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said Meta had tried to poach his best employees with $100 million signing bonuses. Just weeks ago, Google paid $2.4 billion to hire the CEO and top talent of AI startup Windsurf and license its intellectual property. OpenAI had planned to buy Windsurf for $3 billion, but the deal fell apart. "It's a typical way of doing things," Wang Jian said of Big Tech's hiring strategy. Chasing the same pool of in-demand talent isn't always a winning move, he added. "Whenever everybody knows that these are talents," Wang said, "it's better for you not to get it." "It's really about the vision, you know, where you want to go." Wang and Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. China's AI race is 'very healthy' competition Wang also said that the rivalry among Chinese AI firms is not cutthroat. No single person or company can sprint forever, he said. But collectively, the ecosystem can still move fast. He pointed to a pattern he's observed: One company surges ahead, then slows. Then another takes the lead. Over time, the first catches up again. "You can have the very fast iteration of the technology because of this competition," he said. "I don't think it's brutal, but I think it's very healthy," he added. China's biggest tech players have focused on open-source AI models, which have code and architecture that are publicly available for anyone to use, modify, or build on. One analyst told Business Insider previously that Chinese firms are prioritizing consolidation to stay competitive. For instance, Tencent has deployed its Hunyuan model and DeepSeek R1 across its massive ecosystem, including WeChat. Baidu has also integrated DeepSeek R1 into its search engine. The country is closing the gap with the US in the AI race. In a Stratechery interview earlier this year, Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, said that China is doing "fantastic" in the AI market, with homegrown models like DeepSeek and Manus emerging as credible challengers to US-built systems. He said China's AI researchers are some of the best in the world, and it's no surprise that US companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring them. "Our competition in China is really intense," Huang said in May at the Computex Taipei tech conference in Taiwan. Huang has also said that the US and China are neck and neck in the AI chip race. "China is right behind us. We're very, very close." Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba Cloud Visionary Expects Big Shakeup After OpenAI Hype
(Bloomberg) -- OpenAI's ChatGPT started a revolution in artificial intelligence development and investment. Yet nine-tenths of the technology and services that've sprung up since could be gone in under a decade, according to the founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s cloud and AI unit. The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Budapest's Most Historic Site Gets a Controversial Rebuild Trump Administration Sues NYC Over Sanctuary City Policy The problem is the US startup, celebrated for ushering AI into the mainstream, created 'bias' or a skewed understanding of what AI can do, Wang Jian told Bloomberg Television. It fired the popular imagination about chatbots, but the plethora of applications for AI goes far beyond that. Developers need to cut through the noise and think creatively about applications to propel the next stage of AI development, said Wang, who built Alibaba's now second-largest business from scratch in 2009. 'Probably 90% of the AI people are talking about, I would say, will go away in five or 10 years because it's not really the essence of this technology,' said the computer scientist. 'But that's not bad, and it just helps us to explore.' Wang, who cemented his reputation at Microsoft Research Asia before joining Alibaba, knows a thing or two about thinking outside the box. Shortly after joining, he pitched the idea of a computing business to Alibaba's billionaire co-founder Jack Ma. He recounted being nervous because he had no concrete business proposal, no models to present — just a conviction that the need for computing would explode in coming years. He was right. Alicloud, as it's commonly known, is today a $16 billion business. It not only underpins Alibaba's global e-commerce and logistics endeavors, but it's also the progenitor of the Qwen model — considered on par with DeepSeek and US rivals such as GPT and Gemini. Alibaba has gone all-in on AI, joining the race to build human-like intelligence. US and Chinese companies are investing billions of dollars to develop a technology with the potential to turbocharge economies and — over the long run — tip the balance of geopolitical power. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders in a call to arms to ensure companies like OpenAI and Google help safeguard America's lead in the post-ChatGPT era. Wang refrained from addressing that broader conflict. But he did have some choice words for the way the likes of OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. have thrown money at the problem — including by signing on talented engineers at sports-megastar salaries. 'What happened in Silicon Valley is not the winning formula,' he said. 'It's really about innovation. So when you are in the early stage of innovation, I don't think talent is a problem because the only thing you need to do is to get the right person, not really the expensive person.' Going back almost two decades, Wang admits he never saw the present-day AI revolution coming so soon. All he envisioned was computing becoming as vital as electricity, or oil. That should remain so for at least decades. As for China, Wang's firm belief is it'll remain a hotbed of innovation, in part because it's one of the biggest technology laboratories in the world. 'It's a test bed for the new technology,' he said. 'People are just fascinated about technology. They're doing a lot of different things.' --With assistance from Adrian Wong and Debby Wu. Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme Dude! They Killed Colbert! ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Alibaba's Jian says most current AI tech will be gone in decade, Bloomberg says
Wang Jian, the founder of Alibaba's (BABA) cloud and AI unit, believes nine-tenths of the technology and services that have appeared since Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI's ChatGPT started a revolution in AI will be gone in under a decade, Annabelle Droulers and Lauren Faith Lau of Bloomberg reports. 'Probably 90% of the AI people are talking about, I would say, will go away in five or 10 years because it's not really the essence of this technology,' Jian said, according to Bloomberg. 'But that's not bad, and it just helps us to explore.' Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Alibaba Cloud founder says early innovation doesn't need top-dollar hires: 'What happened in Silicon Valley is not the winning formula'
True innovation doesn't come from highly paid engineers, but from finding the right people to build the unknown, said the founder of Alibaba's cloud and AI unit. "The only thing you need to do is to get the right person," Wang Jian said in an interview with Bloomberg published Monday. "Not really the expensive person because if it's a new business, if it's true innovation, that basically means talent," he added. Wang, who built Alibaba Cloud in 2009, said American tech giants are "very much focused on the existing success of the business." "And existing — it's average of technology," the computer scientist said. "We have a tremendous opportunity to look at technology nobody knows today." "What happened in Silicon Valley is not the winning formula," Wang said. Wang's comments come after Big Tech companies are paying top dollar to recruit elite AI talent, a trend that's likened to sports franchises competing for superstar athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo. The competition reached another level when Meta recruited Scale's CEO, Alexandr Wang, last month as part of a $14.3 billion deal to take a 49% stake in his company. Then, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said Meta had tried to poach his best employees with $100 million signing bonuses. Just weeks ago, Google paid $2.4 billion to hire the CEO and top talent of AI startup Windsurf and license its intellectual property. OpenAI had planned to buy Windsurf for $3 billion, but the deal fell apart. "It's a typical way of doing things," Wang Jian said of Big Tech's hiring strategy. Chasing the same pool of in-demand talent isn't always a winning move, he added. "Whenever everybody knows that these are talents," Wang said, "it's better for you not to get it." "It's really about the vision, you know, where you want to go." Wang and Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. China's AI race is 'very healthy' competition Wang also said that the rivalry among Chinese AI firms is not cutthroat. No single person or company can sprint forever, he said. But collectively, the ecosystem can still move fast. He pointed to a pattern he's observed: One company surges ahead, then slows. Then another takes the lead. Over time, the first catches up again. "You can have the very fast iteration of the technology because of this competition," he said. "I don't think it's brutal, but I think it's very healthy," he added. China's biggest tech players have focused on open-source AI models, which have code and architecture that are publicly available for anyone to use, modify, or build on. One analyst told Business Insider previously that Chinese firms are prioritizing consolidation to stay competitive. For instance, Tencent has deployed its Hunyuan model and DeepSeek R1 across its massive ecosystem, including WeChat. Baidu has also integrated DeepSeek R1 into its search engine. The country is closing the gap with the US in the AI race. In a Stratechery interview earlier this year, Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, said that China is doing "fantastic" in the AI market, with homegrown models like DeepSeek and Manus emerging as credible challengers to US-built systems. He said China's AI researchers are some of the best in the world, and it's no surprise that US companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring them. "Our competition in China is really intense," Huang said in May at the Computex Taipei tech conference in Taiwan. Huang has also said that the US and China are neck and neck in the AI chip race. "China is right behind us. We're very, very close."
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba Cloud Founder on Silicon Valley Talent Grab
Alibaba Cloud Founder and Zhejiang Lab Director, Wang Jian, has spoken exclusively to our Asia Tech Correspondent Annabelle Droulers about the huge pay packets being offered to hire or poach Artificial Intelligence talent from companies. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
