Alibaba’s Qwen AI division head becomes latest executive to leave this year

Summary

Lin Junyang, the head of Alibaba’s Qwen artificial intelligence division, announced his resignation on Wednesday. His departure marks the third high-level exit from the AI unit this year, occurring even as the platform celebrates record-breaking user growth and a top-three global ranking.

BEIJING, March 4, 2026 — Leadership stability at Alibaba Group’s premier AI division faced a fresh setback on Wednesday as Lin Junyang, the head of the Qwen large language model unit, announced he is stepping down. The move makes him the third senior leader to exit the division in the first quarter of 2026.

Lin shared the news of his departure in a brief post on X, formerly Twitter, stating, “Bye my beloved Qwen,” though he offered no specific reason for his decision. His exit was followed immediately by the reported resignation of Yu Bowen, the executive in charge of post-training for the Qwen models. These departures follow the January exit of Hui Binyuan, a key research scientist focused on AI coding.

A series of high-level exits

The brain drain comes at a sensitive time for Alibaba’s technology roadmap. While the division has successfully released over 400 open-source models since 2023, the loss of three foundational leaders in quick succession has raised questions about internal alignment.

The resignations occurred just two days after the division rolled out its latest product updates. Market analysts noted that Alibaba’s shares fell 4% in Wednesday afternoon trade, though much of that slide was attributed to a broader sell-off in Hong Kong markets triggered by geopolitical tensions regarding the Iran war.

Rapid growth amidst leadership shifts

Despite the internal turnover, the Qwen platform is experiencing a historic surge in popularity. Monthly active users for the Qwen mobile app exploded to 203 million in February, up from roughly 31 million in January.

This 550% increase in user activity has propelled Qwen to the rank of the third-largest AI product globally, trailing only OpenAI’s ChatGPT and ByteDance’s Doubao. This growth was largely fueled by aggressive marketing campaigns and holiday-specific AI features launched during the Lunar New Year.

Why this matters

• Talent retention: The departure of three senior leaders in three months suggests a potential “talent war” within China’s AI sector, as executives may be lured away by rival firms or new startups.
• Global competition: As Qwen climbs to the number three spot globally, consistent leadership is vital to maintaining momentum against ByteDance and international players like OpenAI.
• Open-source influence: With over 1 billion downloads of its models, Alibaba’s Qwen is a pillar of the global open-source AI community; significant leadership changes could impact the direction of future releases.

FAQs

Q1. Who are the executives that have left Qwen this year?

Lin Junyang (Head of Division), Yu Bowen (Head of Post-training), and Hui Binyuan (Staff Research Scientist).

Q2. How popular is the Qwen AI app?

As of February 2026, it has 203 million monthly active users, making it the third most popular AI app in the world.

Q3. Did Alibaba’s stock price drop because of the resignations?

While the resignations likely weighed on sentiment, analysts point to a broader market sell-off linked to regional geopolitical instability as a primary driver for the 4% slide.

Q4. What is the scale of Qwen’s model library?

Alibaba has released more than 400 open-source Qwen models, which have collectively surpassed 1 billion downloads.