Alibaba Group Holding Limited announced on Monday that it has created a new business unit called Token Foundry. The unit will merge the company’s Tongyi Lab and Future Life business units and will operate under the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH), a top‑level AI group that was established in March. Token Foundry will be led directly by Alibaba’s chief executive, Eddie Wu.

The move is part of Alibaba’s broader effort to accelerate the commercialization of artificial intelligence. According to the company’s report, the Token Hub focuses on the creation, delivery and application of AI tokens, oversight of the model‑as‑a‑service offering Qwen, and the development of enterprise AI products. In addition, the group will oversee the newly formed AI Future Research Institute.

Wu said during a May earnings call that AI accounts for a growing share of Alibaba Group’s revenue and that the technology will deliver a return on the substantial investment the company is making in AI infrastructure. He added that AI‑related product revenue now accounts for 30% of the revenue of Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Group and that it will account for more than 50% in about a year.

"We are at a pivotal inflection point in the evolution from conversational chatbots to autonomous AI agents, which is directly driving explosive growth across three core workload categories: training, inference and agent orchestration," Wu said. He also noted that Alibaba’s AI has moved beyond the initial investment phase and progressed commercialization at scale.

The Token Hub was announced in March with a description of its component units: Tongyi Laboratory, which builds multimodal foundation models; the MaaS Business Line, which builds technical infrastructure for AI; the Qwen Business Unit, which builds a personal AI assistant; the AI Innovation Business Unit, which explores new AI applications; and the Wukong Business Unit, which focuses on building an AI‑native work platform for enterprises.

"I will lead ATH directly, with a mandate to drive strategic coordination across our AI businesses, embed AI deeply into how we work, and preserve the agility that lets us move fast," Wu said at the time of the announcement.

Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Group has reported triple‑digit year‑over‑year growth in AI‑related product revenue for the past ten consecutive quarters. The group’s external revenue has risen 40% in the most recent quarter, and AI‑related product revenue now represents 30% of that external revenue.

The creation of Token Foundry signals Alibaba’s intent to consolidate its AI development efforts and to strengthen monetization of its AI services. By placing the unit under the direct oversight of the CEO, the company aims to accelerate decision‑making and ensure that AI initiatives are closely aligned with its broader business strategy.

Alibaba has not yet responded to a request for comment from PYMNTS. The company’s latest earnings reports and regulatory filings do not yet provide additional details on the operational scope or financial performance of Token Foundry.

The development comes as Alibaba continues to invest heavily in AI infrastructure, including the expansion of its data center network and the launch of new AI chips. Investors and analysts will likely watch the unit’s progress closely as the company seeks to capture a larger share of the growing AI services market.

In the coming months, Alibaba is expected to release updated financial results that will detail the performance of its Cloud Intelligence Group and the impact of the new AI structure. The company’s next earnings call will also be a key venue for further clarification on the Token Foundry’s role within the broader AI ecosystem.