🐯Huxiu (虎嗅)•Stalecollected in 22h
Alibaba's Lin Junyang Quits Post Qwen 3.5 Release

💡Musk praises Qwen 3.5 open-source; Alibaba AI star exits
⚡ 30-Second TL;DR
What Changed
Lin Junyang rose to P10 at Alibaba in one year
Why It Matters
Highlights talent competition in China's AI race. Qwen 3.5 open source boosts Alibaba's model ecosystem. Signals Alibaba's focus on collective over individuals.
What To Do Next
Download Qwen 3.5 from Hugging Face and benchmark against GPT-4o.
Who should care:Developers & AI Engineers
🧠 Deep Insight
Web-grounded analysis with 7 cited sources.
🔑 Enhanced Key Takeaways
- •Lin Junyang submitted his resignation on March 3, 2026, with Alibaba officially approving it via CEO Wu Yongming's internal email on March 5, announcing a new basic model support group led by Wu, Zhou Jingren, and Fan Yu.[1][2]
- •Yu Bowen, Qwen's post-training head, and Hui Binyuan, a staff research scientist focused on coding, also recently resigned, following Zhou Chang's departure to ByteDance in 2024.[5]
- •Lin joined Alibaba in July 2019 via Damo Academy, became Qwen team member in April 2023, and was appointed project head in 2022; his exit announcement on X prompted reactions like 'end of an era' from team member Wenting Zhao.[3][5][6]
🔮 Future ImplicationsAI analysis grounded in cited sources
Alibaba will maintain Qwen development momentum
CEO Wu Yongming's email commits to continued open-source strategy, increased AI R&D investment, and talent attraction under Zhou Jingren's leadership.[2]
⏳ Timeline
2019-07
Lin Junyang joins Alibaba’s Damo Academy after master’s from Peking University.
2022-01
Lin Junyang appointed head of Qwen project, reporting to Alibaba Cloud CTO Zhou Jingren.
2023-04
Lin Junyang joins Qwen team; Alibaba introduces Qwen model family.
2024-01
Zhou Chang, former Qwen technical head, leaves Alibaba for ByteDance.
2025-01
Lin Junyang promoted to P10, youngest at Alibaba at age 32.
2026-01
Hui Binyuan, Qwen coding research scientist, leaves the team.
2026-03
Lin Junyang resigns on March 3; Qwen 3.5 released shortly before.
📎 Sources (7)
Factual claims are grounded in the sources below. Forward-looking analysis is AI-generated interpretation.
- technode.com — Qwen Technical Lead Lin Junyang Leaves Alibaba Sources Say
- binance.com — 298163585246369
- benzinga.com — Alibaba Shock Qwen AI Tech Lead Junyang Lin Abruptly Steps Down
- ndtv.com — Alibaba Groups AI Head Junyang Lin Who Warned of US China Tech Gap Steps Down 11166411
- caixinglobal.com — Alibabas AI Model Chief Resigns 102419448
- TechCrunch — Alibabas Qwen Tech Lead Steps Down After Major AI Push
- eweek.com — Alibaba Qwen Tech Lead Steps Down
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Original source: Huxiu (虎嗅) ↗