Alibaba has established an "internal central bank" for tokens.

Author | Huang Yu

Alibaba is undergoing a major organizational restructuring, signaling its full commitment to the AI Agent era.

Wall Street Insights has learned that on March 16, Alibaba officially announced the establishment of the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group, aimed at creating a new organization centered on “creating tokens, transmitting tokens, and applying tokens,” led directly by CEO Wu Yongming.

Wu Yongming sent an internal memo stating that we are on the eve of an AGI explosion. A large number of digital tasks will be supported by hundreds of billions of AI Agents, which will operate based on tokens generated by models, becoming the main medium for human interaction with the digital world. Facing this historic opportunity, Alibaba has decided to formally establish the ATH business group.

This move marks Alibaba’s plan to build a unified “Token Scheduling Center” to fully support the development of AI core business units.

The establishment of the new business group coincides with the upcoming release of Alibaba’s enterprise-level AI Agent product.

According to Bloomberg, Alibaba is expected to launch a new enterprise-level AI Agent application this week, developed by the DingTalk team, capable of helping enterprises automate operations on computers, browsers, and cloud servers, with built-in enterprise data security features.

Alibaba responded to Wall Street Insights, saying that Alibaba’s flagship AI to B application will be unveiled soon. Additionally, Wall Street Insights learned that the DingTalk team will hold a product launch event on March 17, likely for this enterprise AI Agent application.

This organizational adjustment occurs at a critical point as Alibaba accelerates its AI strategy. Wu Yongming has previously identified general artificial intelligence (AGI) as the company’s top priority, promising to invest over $53 billion in AI. This Thursday, Alibaba will release its latest quarterly earnings report, and the market will further assess the growth prospects of its AI business.

ATH covers the entire AI chain, with Wukong Division making its first public appearance

The Alibaba Token Hub business group consolidates five business lines, covering the full spectrum from foundational models to application endpoints: Tongyi Laboratory is responsible for multimodal foundational model research, continuously pushing the limits of model capabilities; MaaS (Model as a Service) builds an open model service platform supporting the entire industry AI ecosystem; Qianwen Division focuses on personal AI assistants; AI Innovation Division explores new models and markets; and Wukong Division is the first new department to appear publicly in this restructuring.

Wukong Division is positioned as a “B-end native AI work platform,” aiming to deeply integrate model capabilities into enterprise workflows. This means that after last year’s launch of the consumer-facing Qianwen App and this month becoming one of the first Chinese tech companies to release the OpenClaw application for smartphones, Alibaba is officially extending its focus to the B-end AI application market.

In Wu Yongming’s internal memo to all staff, he describes the current period as the “eve of AGI explosion,” noting that a vast amount of digital work will be supported by “hundreds of billions of AI Agents,” which are driven by tokens generated by models.

This statement outlines the logic behind the ATH naming: tokens are the fundamental fuel for AI Agent operation, and building a complete ecosystem around token creation, transmission, and application is Alibaba’s core approach to seizing this historic opportunity.

Competing for the AI Agent Market, Alibaba Accelerates to Fill B-end Gaps

The implementation of ATH and the upcoming launch of enterprise AI Agent products are Alibaba’s proactive responses to the current market landscape. AI Agents capable of helping users automate complex tasks are currently causing a global wave, and competition among Chinese tech companies in this space is intensifying.

According to Bloomberg, Alibaba’s enterprise AI Agent aims to offer more powerful capabilities than OpenClaw, with enhanced features focused on enterprise data security. The company also plans to gradually integrate existing B-end services like Taobao, Alipay, and Alibaba Cloud into this product to create a differentiated service ecosystem. Details on the product’s pricing model and initial integration level remain unclear.

Strategically, the ATH organizational structure divides Alibaba’s AI business into three layers: Tongyi Laboratory and MaaS build the model supply side; Qianwen and Wukong cover C-end and B-end application needs respectively; and the AI Innovation Division retains space for rapid experimentation. Compared to the previous relatively independent operation of each business line, this new structure achieves unified strategic coordination at the CEO level.

As earnings season approaches, the commercial results of this organizational change will be an important reference for investors assessing Alibaba’s AI strategy credibility.

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