Alibaba to invest $15bn in AI and quantum computing research

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced that it will invest $15 billion over the next three years to build overseas research and development program in order to compete with global leaders in e-commerce, logistics and cloud technology. The program is called Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum, and Outlook (referred to as the DAMO Academy for short).

"We are now looking for talented and driven researchers to join us in the quest for new disruptive technologies that would advance our every-day lives, benefit small businesses and narrow the technology gap to make our world a more inclusive place," said Jeff Zhang, Chief Technology Officer, Alibaba. Zhang further said that the program will be at the forefront of developing next-generation technology that will boost the growth of Alibaba and its partners.

The program will undertake projects in areas of data intelligence, IoT, financial technologies, quantum computing and human-machine interaction, including machine learning and Natural Language Processing.

It will be guided by an advisory board comprising researchers and educators from top universities including MIT. However, Jeff Zhang will be the head of the board.

As part of the program, Alibaba will set up seven research labs in Beijing, Hangzhou, San Mateo and Bellevue in the US, Moscow, Tel Aviv and Singapore, and recruit 100 researchers to staff them. Alibaba said the program will help the tech giant fulfill its long-term commitment to serve 2 billion customers and create 100 million jobs in 20 years.