Alibaba Cloud Expands Global Data Centers, Gen AI Offerings
Selina Yuan, President of International Business at Alibaba Cloud, announces the expansion of Alibaba Cloud’s global infrastructure. Photo credit: Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud will launch its first cloud region in Mexico and build data centers in key markets including Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea, the company announced on Thursday as it keeps pace with growing global demand for cloud services.
The cloud computing company also revealed that its one-stop generative AI development platform Model Studio will soon also be available for international customers.
Alibaba Cloud shared the updates at the annual Alibaba Cloud Global Summit , which brings together company executives, partners and customers to discuss the latest innovations in cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
“With the rapidly rising demand for AI across industries, we are reinforcing our commitment to expanding our AI infrastructure and enhancing our cloud capacities worldwide,” said Selina Yuan, President of International Business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.
Companies are leveraging generative AI tools worldwide.
Around a third of organizations reported they were already using the technology in McKinsey’s 2023 State of AI survey, and 40% of respondents said they will increase investment in AI overall as a result of advances in the field.
Customers can tap Alibaba Cloud’s Model Studio for the development of custom generative AI applications.
They can access closed-source and open-source models from Alibaba Cloud’s large language model Qwen family, with multimodal capabilities and model sizes range from 0.5 billion to several hundred billion parameters, to build their AI applications.
Additional model finetuning and inference tools and services will be available on the platform in the second half of the year, according to Alibaba Cloud.
Deepening Partnership
Alibaba Cloud announced enhanced collaboration with a number of its partners at the global summit to better serve their customers globally, building on the 12,000-strong partnership network that Alibaba Cloud has cultivated.
It launched a one-stop enterprise solution for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Asia in partnership with SAP. The integrated cloud-based business management solution provides SMEs in Asia with a powerful, scalable enterprise resource planning (ERP) system on the cloud without the need for substantial initial investment in IT infrastructure.
Amid increased demand from multinational companies in China to master the Salesforce CRM platform, Alibaba Cloud also announced at the Paris summit a Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud training course in China.
The exclusive course is designed for multinational companies with a focus on using and mastering the Salesforce CRM platform, along with its integrated and localized features and products operating on and supported by Alibaba Cloud in the country.
The program aims to train over 10,000 participants with the necessary skills to master the Salesforce platform in China by the end of 2025.
Customer Enablement
A number of industry juggernauts are tapping Alibaba Cloud’s cloud computing capabilities and AI technologies to transform their business operations and deliver better user experience.
LVMH Group has begun integrating Alibaba Cloud’s generative AI capabilities, including Qwen and Model Studio, to elevate its luxury offerings for global consumers and foster innovation-led growth within its global retail businesses.
The luxury group is building on a partnership founded in 2019 when LVMH first implemented Alibaba Cloud’s data management tool to power a platform able to deliver personalized services for its Chinese customer base.
“Alibaba is pleased to enable a transformation of the high-end consumption experience with retail leaders like LVMH through our world-class technologies in cloud computing and AI,” said Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu.
LVMH has also leveraged Alibaba Cloud’s machine learning platform, PAI, to develop customized services that cater to the distinct tastes of Chinese consumers across all its brands.
At the same time, Alibaba Cloud announced it will extend its strategic partnership with the International Canoe Federation (ICF), which empowers the sporting organization to measure and improve the sustainability of its events around the world.
As part of the partnership, the ICF will explore the potential of employing Alibaba Cloud’s AI-driven ESG solutions to reduce environmental impacts and carbon footprint at ICF events and jointly organize sustainable activities to promote collaborative efforts.
