Ant Group

2025.05.17

15:18

Ant Group CTO He Zhengyu: The source of the big model illusion is the lack of data

At the OceanBase Developer Conference held today, Ant Group CTO He Zhengyu said that without data there would be no development of AI, the boundaries of data determine the upper limit of the capabilities of large models, and all data companies will become AI companies. The source of the current illusion of large models is the lack of data. Cheap Internet data is about to run out, resulting in increased data acquisition costs. In addition, there are challenges such as the scarcity and difficulty of flow of rigorous industry data, the difficulty of multimodal data processing, and the difficulty of data quality assessment. The future success of enterprises will mainly depend on how to generate and apply data. He Zhengyu said that Ant Group will support OceanBase's breakthroughs in Ant AI's core scenarios such as finance, medical care, and life, while continuing to support OceanBase's open source and promote the realization of the AGI dream.

2025.05.13

13:43

Ant Group attended the opening ceremony of the School of Computer Science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and signed a strategic cooperation agreement

On May 11, the inauguration ceremony of the School of Computer Science (School of Cyberspace Security and School of Cryptography) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University was held at the Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Ant Group was invited to attend as a strategic partner. At the inauguration ceremony, the School of Computer Science of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Ant Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement. In December 2024, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Ant Group jointly established the "Joint Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and Security", focusing on key technological breakthroughs in the era of artificial intelligence, deeply coordinating and cultivating innovative talents, and promoting the research and application of cutting-edge technologies. At the inauguration ceremony of the School of Computer Science, Professor Wu Fan, Executive Vice Dean of the School of Computer Science of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Yu Feng, Vice President of the Platform Technology Business Group of Ant Group, signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will cooperate in the "Emerging Parallel Computing" talent project, guided by industry needs, and build an innovative ecosystem with deep collaboration between industry, academia and research through the "dual mentor system + project embedded" training model. The cooperation in this project aims to achieve two-way empowerment of technical breakthroughs and talent training, recruit outstanding scientific research talents to carry out joint research projects on "Emerging Parallel Computing", promote the implementation and transformation of scientific research results, and promote industrial development.

00:00

Market news: Ant Group may sell approximately 4% of its shares in Indian payment company Paytm.

2025.05.12

18:12

Caitong Securities: Achieved results in cooperation with Alibaba and Ant Group in areas such as financial technology

Caitong Securities said on the interactive platform on May 12 that the company has cooperated with Alibaba Group and its holding company Ant Group in financial technology, securities services, wealth management and other aspects, and has achieved certain results. First, Alibaba Cloud and data base have helped promote the company's intelligent dual recording, intelligent marketing and big data middle platform construction. Second, the company and Ant Group have carried out Internet platform cooperation under the premise of complying with relevant laws and regulations. At present, the products of Caitong Securities Asset Management and Caitong Fund are sold through the Ant Wealth platform.

2025.05.08

13:45

China Resources Vanguard and Alipay jointly develop “touch and pay” payment service for all industries

Recently, CR Vanguard’s stores across the country have fully launched the “Alipay touch” quick payment and digital services, covering all retail scenarios including boutique supermarkets, comprehensive supermarkets, and community supermarkets. As a leading company in China's retail industry, CR Vanguard's in-depth cooperation with Alipay marks an important step in the industry's transformation to smart retail. Data disclosed by Ant Group on April 24 showed that "Alipay Touch" has launched 17 products for different scenarios such as payment, ordering food, and opening doors. More than 5,000 brands and tens of millions of stores provide users with "Touch" services, with more than 100 million users, covering more than 400 cities across the country. A relevant person in charge of CR Vanguard said that this innovative payment method has been welcomed by consumers since its launch due to its high efficiency and convenience; at the same time, "Alipay touch" has also achieved remarkable results in promoting digital operations of merchants. In the future, the two parties also plan to carry out deeper cooperation in membership services, precision marketing and other aspects, and jointly explore more possibilities for the digital transformation of the retail industry.

2025.04.25

14:05

Ant Group's "Plan A" special project recruits the world's top AI talents to increase investment in the field of AGI

On April 25, Ant Group announced the launch of the "Plan A" AI talent program, recruiting top AI master's and doctoral graduates from world-class universities to strengthen R&D investment in the field of AGI (general artificial intelligence). The first recruitment presentation was held at the ICLR 2025 Summit in Singapore. Ant Group CTO He Zhengyu said at the meeting that Ant will firmly invest in AGI technology and work with the industry to solve the problem of AI universal access. World-class problems require world-class talents. For top talents, we only have Plan A, not Plan B.

2025.04.21

15:51

Ant Group establishes dual centers in Guangzhou

On April 21, during the Canton Fair, the "dual centers" of Ant South China Digital Operation Center and WorldFirst Cross-border Trade Operation Center were officially opened in Pazhou. It is reported that in May 2024, the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government and Ant Technology Group Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement, which clearly stated that they would deepen cooperation in the fields of digital finance, cross-border payment, and technological innovation. At the same time, WorldFirst, a subsidiary of Ant International, has also continued to increase its investment in the Chinese market, setting up a cross-border trade operation center in Guangzhou at the same time, forming a "dual center" strategic layout with the South China Digital Operation Center, and fully promoting the high-quality development of the Bay Area's digital economy.

2025.04.14

09:07

Focusing on green and smart travel, Ant Group, Hello and CATL reached a strategic cooperation

On April 10, Ant Group, Hello and CATL officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Based on their core advantages in digital technology, new energy technology and shared travel ecology, the three parties will carry out in-depth cooperation in four major directions: green smart travel, digital technology, green operations and green investment, and jointly promote the intelligent upgrading of the new energy industry and the construction of an ecological system.

2025.04.12

11:32

Xu Peng, Vice President of Ant Group and former head of the basic large model, resigned

Xu Peng, vice president of Ant Group and former head of the basic large model, has resigned. Xu Peng has been engaged in technical research in the field of artificial intelligence. He worked at Google for 11 years, responsible for and led the core technology research and development of Google Translate, and participated in the algorithm research and development of Google's display advertising system. Previously, Ant established NextEvo, an AI innovation research and development and application department, with Xu Peng as the head, responsible for all core technology research and development of Ant AI, including all research and development work of the Ant Lark large model.

2025.04.08

19:56

Ant Financial announces that its overseas headquarters will be located in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's Key Enterprise Introduction Office (Key Enterprise Introduction Office) held a signing ceremony for the fourth batch of key enterprise partners on April 8. Among them, Ant Digits, a digital technology company under Ant Group, became a "key enterprise partner" of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and announced that its overseas headquarters will be located in Hong Kong. Ant Digits CEO Zhao Wenbiao said, "Hong Kong is the bridgehead for Ant Digits' global layout. In the future, we will use Hong Kong as a hub to build joint laboratories with local universities; at the same time, relying on Hong Kong's financial ecology, we will consolidate the Web3 compliance technology foundation and help digital assets circulate efficiently."

2025.04.01

14:00

Ant Group and China Mobile reportedly plan to invest in Yushu Technology

Reporters learned that robot unicorn company Yushu Technology plans to introduce new investors, including Ant Group and China Mobile, and is currently negotiating specific investment shares. People familiar with the matter said that this round of financing is not a complete new round of financing, but a small number of shares are opened to specific investors. Ant and Yushu have been negotiating and communicating about investment matters for a long time, and the valuation of this financing has not increased compared to 8 billion yuan. A FA (financial advisor) person close to Yushu Technology said that the valuation of this financing is less than 10 billion yuan.

2025.03.27

16:31

Longfor Group and Ant Group reached a strategic cooperation to explore new "touch" service experience

Longfor Group and Ant Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Both parties will be committed to exploring innovative applications of Alipay's "touch" technology in commercial scenarios. In the future, Longfor Group will gradually launch "touch" payment and digital services in Longfor Tianjie Shopping Centers across the country. Consumers only need to touch the device lightly, without opening the Alipay APP, to complete safe and convenient payment.

2025.03.26

15:19

Ant responds to recent share reduction: improving capital utilization efficiency, laying out newer and earlier opportunities

On March 26, in response to Ant Group's reduction of holdings in Obbec and Yonganxing, Ant Group said, "In the past few years, our new investments have focused on cutting-edge technology and globalization. In response to this strategy, we have reduced holdings in some projects that have been held for a long time and have obtained good returns, which can improve the efficiency of capital use and make arrangements for newer and earlier opportunities." After reducing holdings in the two A-share listed companies, Ant Group has accumulated a return on investment of more than 775 million yuan. At the same time, since last year, Ant Group has also increased its investment in the field of AI.

2025.03.25

20:36

Zhejiang Provincial Government and Alibaba Group's Ant Group Sign Strategic Cooperation Agreement

On the afternoon of the 25th, the Zhejiang Provincial Government signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Alibaba Group and Ant Group. Governor Liu Jie witnessed the signing with Alibaba Group Chairman Joseph Tsai and Ant Group Chairman Jing Xiandong. According to the agreement, the provincial government, Alibaba Group and Ant Group will focus on "taking high-quality development as the primary task, narrowing the 'three major gaps' as the main direction, reform and innovation as the fundamental driving force, and meeting the people's needs for a better life as the fundamental purpose", further integrating resources, closely coordinating, promoting the healthy development of the platform economy, cooperating in areas such as artificial intelligence, better serving the practice of Chinese-style modernization in the province, and jointly promoting the implementation of major national strategies. On behalf of the provincial government, Vice Governor Lu Shan signed agreements with Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming and Ant Group CEO Han Xinyi.

2025.03.24

14:34

Ant Group, a major breakthrough in AI, its large model can be efficiently trained on low-performance devices using domestic GPUs

Recently, the Ling team of Ant Group published a technical achievement paper. The paper shows that Ant Group has launched two MoE large language models of different sizes - Ling-Lite and Ling-Plus. The former has a parameter scale of 16.8 billion (2.75 billion activation parameters), and the Plus base model has a parameter scale of up to 290 billion (28.8 billion activation parameters). The performance of both models has reached the industry-leading level. In addition to the self-developed large model with leading performance, the biggest breakthrough of this technical paper is that it proposes a series of innovative methods to improve the efficiency and accessibility of AI development in resource-constrained environments. Experiments show that its 300 billion parameter MoE (mixed expert) large model can be efficiently trained on low-performance devices using domestic GPUs, and its performance is comparable to dense models and MoE models of the same scale that use NVIDIA chips entirely.

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