Alibaba’s cloud computing leader to resign

 

Yangquing Jia, Alibaba’s VP and General Manager of Alibaba Cloud, is resigning from the company to join an unnamed AI-focused startup.  Jia joined Alibaba in 2019 and worked on Facebook and Google’s AI teams before that.  On March 21, Jia posted a farewell message, stating that what attracted him to Alibaba “was the unique contribution that cloud computing could bring to society” and that he “is headed for the next challenge” of his career.  Jia has worked on various AI-related endeavors at Alibaba, including AI research and the development of generative AI offerings since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT service.  Jia is regarded as an expert in AI and was behind Facebook’s AI Infra, according to his Linkedin profile.