Alibaba to invest $15b in tech, set up research labs around the world

Alibaba to invest $15b in tech, set up research labs around the world

DAMO’s research centers will tackle a number of different areas, including internet of things, quantum computing, fintech, human-machine interaction, network security, and natural language processing. DAMO will also include internal research teams at Alibaba, as well as its financial and logistics affiliates Ant Financial and Cainiao, respectively.

“A lot of researchers need real data and use cases to carry out their research,” Jeff Zhang, chief technology officer at Alibaba and head of DAMO, tells Tech in Asia. Alibaba has plenty of these business cases and can work with researchers to solve them, he says.

Indeed, the main purpose of DAMO, which is looking to recruit about 100 researchers from around the world, is to develop technology that can be funneled into Alibaba’s business. Big data and artificial intelligence capabilities, for instance, could become part of Alibaba Cloud’s service offering. Some research results from DAMO will also be opensourced, says Zhang.


Alibaba’s ambitious 20 year goals are dependent upon enormous growth of their global footprint, but equally important at this juncture is developing the ability to quickly leverage (or at least brace for) technological breakthroughs in the areas of study covered in this DAMO program.

As ever, they are positioned here as a platform that will provide participants with access to enormous amounts of data in exchange for insights that will be channeled to every corner of Alibaba’s expansive service offering, which now also includes a controlling stake in the logistics company Cainiao.

This appeared in our weekly maker business newsletter on adafruitdaily.com – sign up!


Halloween season is here!
Halloween season is here! Check out all the posts, gift guides, and more!

Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 38,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — New nEw NEWS From Adafruit Round-Up: July, August & September, 2024

Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Python Releases, an ESP32+MicroPython IDE and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Garden Lights, Bluetooth 6.0, and more!

Maker Business – Adafruit Daily — First Solar’s $1.1 billion development of vertically integrated factory in the U.S.

Electronics – Adafruit Daily — My signal isn’t THAT noisy, is it?

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.