Alibaba Group Holding, which operates a fast-growing cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) business, is emerging as a major enabler and funder of China’s AI industry, as witnessed by the company’s flagship annual Apsara Conference that concluded on Saturday.
Held in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province, the event has become an important platform for the country’s emerging AI start-ups, whether they are focused on large language model (LLM) development or generative AI applications, to showcase their latest breakthroughs and discuss the tech trends in the AI sector.
Now in its 16th year, Apsara reflects how Alibaba has emerged as a major enabler of China’s booming AI industry, with its sprawling investments in sector start-ups as well as its expanded partnerships with traditional industries. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
“The Apsara Conference… has now become a benchmark for the development of global cloud computing and artificial intelligence,” according to Liu Jie, Hangzhou’s communist party secretary who delivered a speech on the opening day of the event last Thursday.
This year’s conference was estimated to attract more than 280 companies and an audience of over 90,000, according to Liu.
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