Alibaba Cloud Founder Wang Jian Sees Space as AI’s Next Frontier

Wang Jian’s research focus has shifted to space computing, marking a new stage in the career of the Alibaba Cloud founder and cloud infrastructure pioneer.

Long before artificial intelligence became the tech industry’s next big thing, Wang was crafting the foundational infrastructure that would eventually power it.

In 2008, he joined Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of the South China Morning Post, as chief architect. In 2009, he founded Alibaba Cloud and convinced the company’s leadership to invest heavily in building cloud computing infrastructure from scratch.

From cloud infrastructure to space computing

Today, Wang’s purview has expanded considerably. He is an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the director of Zhejiang Lab, a research institution backed by the Zhejiang provincial government.

As an academician and research institution director, Wang’s focus has turned to a new frontier: space computing. The shift comes as the technology industry is focused on the latest excitement over AI models.

A wider debate around AI

Wang says open-source and closed-source AI philosophies are not at odds. He has also called for more Chinese cloud competition to strengthen the industry.

Those views sit alongside his earlier push to persuade Alibaba’s leadership to build cloud computing infrastructure from scratch. That infrastructure, according to the source, would eventually power artificial intelligence. His career has therefore moved from building the systems behind cloud computing to examining space computing as a new frontier connected to the next phase of AI development.

Source: South China Morning Post