Alibaba · Full chronicle and history

On October 20, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have collectively ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, with potential orders worth over $35 billion. Because U.S. restrictions limit exports of high-end AI chips to China, the three companies have turned to this workstation graphics card for AI inference, but Nvidia cannot guarantee supply, and some partners may receive only 5%–10% of the quantity they need.

According to The Wall Street Journal, ZRON built an analytics dashboard that integrates public information and private data, introducing large models such as Alibaba and DeepSeek, which can automatically generate intelligence reports and organize event timelines, improving the readability and practicality of intelligence products.

On August 20, 2026, a technical developer released an analysis report pointing out that Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce platform, AliExpress, silently invokes WebAudio via security scripts in its webpage backend to generate audio signals, which are combined with various hardware parameters to create deep device fingerprints.

John Moolenaar, chairman of the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, wrote to the CEO of MSE, requesting an explanation of the company's partnership with Alibaba and urging that the cooperation be terminated.

Chinese officials have reportedly told companies such as Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek that they may soon be permitted to purchase some H200 chips, with the quantities still being determined.

Alibaba is accused of failing to prevent merchants on its platform from conducting approximately 80,000 transactions involving the export of illegal drugs, equipment, and other items to the United States between January 2016 and December 2024.

On June 25, 2026, AFP reported that France's Ministry of Economy and Finance confirmed it had stopped testing Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen AI model among its staff, after its answers on China-related topics were accused of showing a directional bias.

Alibaba Group sued the US government in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on June 23, demanding its removal from the Pentagon's 1260H Chinese military enterprise list.

On June 13, 2026, China's Ministry of Commerce issued a statement in response to the US Defense Department's addition of Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and BYD to its military-related list, urging the US side to immediately revoke the relevant unilateral sanctions.

On June 10, artificial intelligence company Anthropic sent a letter to the U.S. Senate accusing Alibaba of launching a large-scale model distillation attack against its Cloud AI using nearly 25,000 fake accounts to illegally extract model capabilities.

On the same day Xi Jinping returned to Beijing, the US Department of Defense released the revised 1260H blacklist, adding multiple leading Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, and BYD to the roster.

Alibaba has officially sued the US Department of Defense, demanding to be removed from the so-called "1260H list", stating that the US side provided insufficient evidence or reasonable explanation for designating it as military-linked.

US AI company Anthropic sent a letter to the Senate accusing Alibaba of using tens of thousands of accounts between April and June to launch a large-scale model distillation attack against Claude AI in order to replicate its capabilities.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Defense released the 1260H list, designating 188 enterprises, including Alibaba, as entities associated with the Chinese military.

Photos circulated online show Jack Ma participating in a rice planting activity with some Alibaba staff and former executives in Hangzhou.

Bloomberg reported on May 26 that some of the top AI talent at private companies such as Alibaba and DeepSeek must obtain official approval before leaving the country, with the list selected based on an individual's strategic importance to the country rather than solely on rank or employer.

According to a Bloomberg report cited by the program, government departments require senior AI researchers and executives at companies such as Alibaba and DeepSeek to obtain prior approval before leaving the country.

Alibaba, as a premier sponsor, sponsored a Washington Wizards event organized by the MSE Foundation.

The Malaysian subsidiary has pledged all existing and future equipment to Apex, a company 100% owned by Alibaba, for procurement and financial guarantees.

In late August 2021, media reported that Gao Xiaosong had left Alibaba; Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group only responded that it was unclear, and no reason was announced.

On March 16, 2021, Gao Xiaosong stepped down from the director position at Beijing Alibaba Music.

In February 2021, Xiami Music ceased service, bringing to an end the music empire Gao Xiaosong had hoped to build when he joined Alibaba.

On November 3, 2020, following Jack Ma's Bund speech criticizing financial regulation, the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced the suspension of Ant Group's A-share listing just two days before it was scheduled to go public. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange followed suit immediately, halting the world's largest IPO.

On the evening of July 15, 2020, Alibaba executives held a dinner to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Gao Xiaosong joining Alibaba. Gao Xiaosong posted the group photo online, publicly revealing his Alibaba employee ID and rank.

AUS acknowledged deficiencies in its transaction monitoring system between January 2020 and December 2023, which failed to prevent illegal transactions by some Alibaba merchants.

In 2017, Gao Xiaosong composed and produced "Feng Qingyang," the theme song for the martial arts short film "Gong Shou Dao" starring Jack Ma, and invited Faye Wong and Jack Ma to sing it together.

In 2016, Shentong Express went public in Shenzhen. Previously, Alibaba founder Jack Ma had invested in Shentong, pushing it to leverage the growth of online shopping to expand its courier business.

In September 2016, Gao Xiaosong stepped down as chairman of Alibaba Music and took over as chairman of the Alibaba Entertainment Strategy Committee, responsible for international strategy and representing Alibaba at cultural and entertainment events.

In April 2016, Alibaba transformed Tiantian Dongting into Ali Planet, an app combining music listening, following stars, performances, and fan interaction. A large number of users left, and months later Ali Planet shut down its main services. Gao Xiaosong later admitted this was a wrong decision.

In January 2015, Gao Xiaosong and Song Ke joined Alibaba after meeting with Jack Ma in Hangzhou. In March of the same year, Xiami Music and Tiantian Dongting were integrated into Alibaba Music. In July, Gao Xiaosong officially took office as chairman and Song Ke as CEO, setting the goal of becoming a world-class music institution within three years.