Alibaba’s Qwen AI project is facing a significant change as one of its key technical leaders, Junyang Lin, announced his departure from the team. This news comes just a day after the unveiling of the new Qwen 3.5 open-weight small models by the Chinese tech giant. Lin, who has been a central figure on the Qwen team, shared his decision to step down without providing further details. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he joined Alibaba in July 2019 and became part of the Qwen team in April 2023.
The sudden exit of Lin has sparked strong reactions from colleagues and industry partners, highlighting the competitive landscape in the global AI development space. The Qwen family of models has gained prominence in China as a leading open-weight AI initiative, with recent releases showcasing benchmark results that rival those of top U.S. developers like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The model was introduced by Alibaba in April 2023 and made available for public use that September following regulatory approval.
Alibaba recently introduced its Qwen 3.5 Small Model series, featuring four models with parameters ranging from 0.8B to 9B. These native multimodal models are designed for various applications, from on-device AI deployment to lightweight agents. The launch of these models attracted attention from key figures in the AI community, including Elon Musk, who praised their “impressive intelligence density.”
Lin’s departure coincided with the Qwen team’s efforts to release new models, leading to emotional tributes from colleagues and partners who recognized his pivotal role in the project. Research scientist Wenting Zhao thanked Lin for his contributions to advancing open-source AI and engineering, while Yuchen Jin, CTO of AI infrastructure startup Hyperbolic, highlighted Lin’s efforts in connecting Qwen with the global developer community. Tiezhen Wang, head of APAC ecosystem at Hugging Face, described Lin’s exit as a significant loss for the Qwen project.
Despite the outpouring of support, the circumstances surrounding Lin’s departure remain unclear as he has not responded to requests for comment. Another Qwen team member, Binyuan Hui, updated his profile on X to indicate that he is no longer with Alibaba, although the exact timing of his departure is unknown.
Alibaba has not provided any official statement regarding the reasons for Lin’s exit or the impact on the leadership structure of the Qwen team. The departure of such a key figure has undoubtedly raised questions about the future direction of the project and the team’s ability to continue innovating in the competitive AI landscape.
