Alibaba's Qwen AI Project Faces Leadership Shakeup

Alibaba's Qwen AI project has experienced a significant leadership change with the resignation of Junyang Lin, a prominent technical leader, just one day after the company launched its Qwen 3.5 open-weight small models. Lin announced his departure via a post on X, without providing specific reasons. He joined Alibaba in July 2019 and became part of the Qwen team in April 2023. His exit has elicited strong reactions from colleagues and industry partners, highlighting his central role in the project.

TechCrunch

The Qwen family of models has gained recognition as one of China's leading open-weight AI initiatives, with recent releases achieving benchmark results that compete with those from major U.S. developers such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The Qwen 3.5 Small Model series, introduced on March 2, 2026, includes models with parameters ranging from 0.8 billion to 9 billion, designed for various applications including on-device AI deployment.

TechCrunch

Lin's departure has been described as a significant loss for the Qwen project. Wenting Zhao, a research scientist on the Qwen team, referred to it as “the end of an era,” expressing gratitude for Lin's contributions to open-source AI and engineering. Yuchen Jin, chief technology officer of AI infrastructure startup Hyperbolic, emphasized Lin's role in connecting Qwen with the global developer community, recalling collaborative efforts during model launches. Tiezhen Wang, head of APAC ecosystem at Hugging Face, echoed similar sentiments, calling Lin's exit an "immense loss."

TechCrunch

The circumstances of Lin's resignation remain unclear, as he did not respond to requests for comment. Chen Cheng, a contributor to the Qwen project, expressed his sorrow on X, suggesting that Lin's departure may not have been voluntary. Cheng noted that the team had been collaborating on model launches just hours before Lin's announcement. Additionally, Binyuan Hui, another Qwen team member, updated his profile to indicate he is "formerly MTS @Alibaba_Qwen," although it is uncertain whether he has also left the company.

TechCrunch

Alibaba has not provided any official comments regarding Lin's departure or the future leadership structure of the Qwen team. The impact of this leadership change on the Qwen project and its ongoing developments in the competitive AI landscape remains to be seen, particularly as the company continues to push forward with its AI initiatives.

TechCrunch

• “the end of an era,” — Wenting Zhao, Research Scientist, Qwen Team

TechCrunch

• “I know leaving wasn’t your choice” — Chen Cheng, Contributor, Qwen Project

TechCrunch

• “an immense loss” — Tiezhen Wang, Head of APAC Ecosystem, Hugging Face

TechCrunch