Eddie Wu

Eddie Wu
Born	Wu Yongming
Nationality	Singaporean
Occupation	Business executive
Title	Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba Group
Known for	CEO of Alibaba Group

Eddie Wu (Template:Lang, also known as Wu Yongming) is a Singaporean business executive serving as the chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, one of the world's largest technology and e-commerce companies. Wu assumed the role on 10 September 2023, succeeding Daniel Zhang. As one of Alibaba's 19 co-founders, Wu has been with the company since its founding in 1999, making him one of the longest-serving members of the organization's leadership. Under his stewardship, Alibaba has undertaken a significant strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence, with Wu committing the company to invest more than 380 billion yuan (approximately US$53 billion) in AI infrastructure and declaring the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI) as a central corporate objective. His tenure has been defined by efforts to reposition Alibaba in the intensifying global competition over AI capabilities, cloud computing, and next-generation digital infrastructure.

Early Life

Eddie Wu was born as Wu Yongming. He holds Singaporean citizenship. Details about his early childhood and family background are not extensively documented in publicly available sources. Wu's early years coincided with the rapid modernization and economic liberalization of China during the 1980s and 1990s, a period that would produce a generation of technology entrepreneurs who went on to build some of Asia's largest digital companies.

Wu attended Zhejiang University of Technology, where he studied computer science. The university, located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, is the same city where Alibaba was later founded. Wu's education in computer science provided a technical foundation that would prove instrumental in his career, particularly in building Alibaba's early payment and technology systems.

Education

Wu graduated from Zhejiang University of Technology with a degree in computer science. Hangzhou's emergence as a technology hub in China was closely intertwined with the presence of several universities in the region, including Zhejiang University of Technology, which produced graduates who would form the nucleus of the city's burgeoning tech ecosystem. Wu's technical training distinguished him among Alibaba's co-founders and positioned him for roles in product development and technology strategy throughout his career.

Career

Co-founding Alibaba

In 1999, Wu was among the 19 individuals who co-founded Alibaba alongside Jack Ma in an apartment in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. The founding group, sometimes referred to as the "Alibaba 18" (with Jack Ma counted separately), pooled their resources to create what would become one of the world's most valuable technology companies. Wu's background in computer science made him a key technical contributor during the company's earliest stages.

During Alibaba's formative years, Wu played a significant role in the development of the company's technology infrastructure. He was instrumental in building Alipay, Alibaba's online payment platform, which became one of the most widely used digital payment systems in China and later evolved into Ant Group's core product. Wu served as the first product architect of Alipay, designing the foundational systems that would process billions of transactions.

Wu's contributions extended across multiple business units within the Alibaba ecosystem. Over the course of more than two decades, he held various leadership positions within the group, gaining experience across e-commerce, financial technology, and digital infrastructure. His long tenure and involvement in multiple strategic initiatives gave him a comprehensive understanding of Alibaba's operations and competitive landscape.

Appointment as CEO

On 10 September 2023, Eddie Wu officially assumed the role of chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, replacing Daniel Zhang, who had led the company since 2015. The leadership transition came during a period of significant restructuring at Alibaba. Earlier in 2023, Alibaba had announced plans to reorganize its operations into six major business groups, each with its own CEO and board of directors, in a move that represented the largest organizational overhaul in the company's history.

Wu's appointment was part of a broader leadership realignment within Alibaba's senior management. His selection as CEO was seen as a reflection of the company's desire to return to its technological roots and to place a technically minded executive at the helm during a period of intensifying competition in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. As a co-founder with deep institutional knowledge, Wu brought continuity and historical perspective to the role while also signaling a shift in strategic priorities.

Upon taking office, Wu moved quickly to articulate a new strategic direction for the company. He identified artificial intelligence and cloud computing as the two primary growth vectors for Alibaba's future, setting the stage for a significant reallocation of capital and organizational focus.

AI Strategy and Investment

Under Wu's leadership, Alibaba has embarked on one of the most ambitious AI investment programs among Chinese technology companies. In September 2025, Wu delivered a speech at a technology conference in which he announced that Alibaba would invest more than 380 billion yuan (approximately US$53 billion) in AI infrastructure over the coming three years. The announcement represented a substantial increase over previously disclosed spending plans and underscored Wu's conviction that AI would fundamentally reshape the technology industry.

Wu's speech articulated a vision centered on the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI), declaring these goals as representing a "new start" for Alibaba. He indicated that the company's infrastructure spending would likely exceed the US$53 billion already committed, suggesting an open-ended investment horizon driven by the pace of technological advancement.

The market response to Wu's announcements was substantial. Following his September 2025 speech, Alibaba's stock price surged, adding approximately US$28 billion to the company's market capitalization in a single trading session and pushing shares to their highest level in nearly four years. The rally reflected investor confidence in Wu's strategic direction and Alibaba's positioning in the global AI race.

Wu's AI strategy has not been limited to financial commitments. He has articulated a vision for what Alibaba describes as a "super AI cloud," a large-scale computing infrastructure designed to meet the growing demand for AI training and inference capabilities across the technology industry. This initiative positions Alibaba Cloud as a provider of the foundational infrastructure required by companies and researchers developing AI applications, potentially creating a new revenue stream beyond Alibaba's traditional e-commerce business.

In November 2025, Wu publicly dismissed concerns about an AI investment bubble. During an earnings call, he stated that he did not see "much of an issue" with excessive AI spending and affirmed that Alibaba planned to invest "aggressively" in AI capabilities. His comments came amid broader debate within the global technology industry about whether the pace of AI investment was sustainable or reflected speculative excess.

Cloud Computing Growth

A central component of Wu's strategy has been the expansion and transformation of Alibaba Cloud, the company's cloud computing division. Under his leadership, Alibaba Cloud has experienced significant growth driven by AI-related demand. In the quarter reported in November 2025, Alibaba's cloud computing revenue rose 34% year-on-year to 39.8 billion yuan, a notable acceleration from prior growth rates.

The growth in cloud revenue has been attributed in significant part to increasing demand for AI computing services. As companies across China and internationally have sought access to large-scale computing infrastructure for training and deploying AI models, Alibaba Cloud has positioned itself as a leading provider of such services in the Chinese market. Wu has framed cloud computing and AI as mutually reinforcing capabilities, with investments in AI infrastructure driving cloud revenue growth while cloud scale enabling more advanced AI development.

Wu's emphasis on the cloud business represents a strategic bet that Alibaba's future growth will increasingly come from enterprise technology services rather than solely from consumer e-commerce. This positioning mirrors strategies adopted by other major technology companies globally, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, all of which have seen AI become a primary driver of cloud revenue growth.

Organizational and Strategic Realignment

Beyond AI investment, Wu's tenure as CEO has been characterized by broader efforts to streamline Alibaba's organizational structure and refocus its diverse business portfolio. The company's 2023 restructuring into six business groups preceded Wu's appointment but continued to evolve under his leadership. Wu has sought to ensure that Alibaba's various business units—spanning e-commerce, cloud computing, logistics, digital media, and local services—operate with greater strategic coherence, particularly around the AI-first vision he has articulated.

Wu's approach has involved evaluating which business lines align with Alibaba's long-term strategic priorities and which may be candidates for divestiture or reduced investment. This process has been observed by analysts as an effort to create a leaner, more focused company that can compete effectively against both domestic rivals such as Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com, as well as global technology giants.

Personal Life

Eddie Wu holds Singaporean citizenship. He is known to be a relatively private individual compared to other prominent Chinese technology executives. Unlike Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, who became one of the most recognizable business figures in the world, Wu has maintained a lower public profile throughout most of his career, emerging into greater public visibility primarily after his appointment as CEO.

Wu's decades-long association with Alibaba, dating back to its founding in a Hangzhou apartment in 1999, makes him one of the few remaining co-founders in active senior leadership at the company. His continued involvement across more than 25 years reflects a deep connection to the organization and its mission.

Recognition

Eddie Wu's most significant recognition has come through his appointment as CEO of one of the world's largest technology companies by market capitalization. His September 2025 speech on Alibaba's AI strategy attracted global media coverage and was credited with triggering a US$28 billion increase in Alibaba's market value in a single day, one of the largest single-day market capitalization gains for a Chinese technology company.

Wu's strategic pronouncements have been analyzed and discussed in publications including Bloomberg, the Financial Times, the South China Morning Post, CNBC, and Business Insider, reflecting his growing influence as a voice in global technology strategy. Technology commentators have noted Wu's speech as a significant moment in the global AI competition, with analysis platforms such as ChinaTalk characterizing Alibaba under Wu as having become "AGI-pilled," a colloquial term indicating a full strategic commitment to artificial general intelligence.

The financial results achieved under Wu's leadership have also drawn attention. The 34% year-on-year growth in cloud computing revenue reported in November 2025 was received positively by investors and analysts, contributing to further share price appreciation.

Legacy

As CEO of Alibaba Group, Eddie Wu is presiding over one of the most consequential strategic transformations in the company's history. His decision to commit tens of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure and to orient the company's future around the pursuit of AGI represents a defining bet that will shape Alibaba's trajectory for years to come. Whether this investment yields the returns Wu envisions remains to be seen, but the scale and ambition of the commitment have established him as a central figure in China's AI development ecosystem.

Wu's career arc—from a young computer science graduate joining a small startup in a Hangzhou apartment to leading one of the world's most valuable technology companies—mirrors the broader story of China's digital economy transformation over the past quarter century. As one of the last remaining co-founders in active leadership, Wu serves as a living link between Alibaba's origins and its aspirations for the future.

His leadership has been characterized by a return to technical focus after a period in which Alibaba's growth was driven primarily by e-commerce scale and ecosystem expansion. By recentering the company around AI and cloud computing, Wu has signaled that Alibaba's next chapter will be defined by infrastructure and intelligence rather than commerce alone. The success or failure of this strategic pivot will constitute the primary measure of Wu's tenure as CEO and his contribution to Alibaba's long-term position in the global technology landscape.

The broader significance of Wu's AI investment program extends beyond Alibaba itself. As one of the largest disclosed AI spending commitments by any company globally, it has implications for China's competitiveness in artificial intelligence, the development of cloud infrastructure in Asia, and the global race toward advanced AI systems. Wu's public statements dismissing AI bubble concerns and committing to aggressive investment have contributed to shaping the broader narrative around AI spending in the technology industry.