Leadership Reshuffle Announcement

In a surprise leadership reshuffle in June, Alibaba announced that its CEO and chairman, Zhang, will step down on Sept. 10 to focus on the cloud intelligence business. The co-founder, Wu, will take over as the new CEO and director, while another co-founder, Joseph Tsai, will become the chairman from September.

Zhang has been the CEO of Alibaba Group since 2015 and the group chairman since 2019. He has also been serving as the chairman and CEO of the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group since 2022. The company expressed its appreciation to Zhang for his contributions over the past 16 years.

Zhang’s Continued Contribution and Company Plans

Zhang will continue to contribute to Alibaba by utilizing his expertise in a different way. An internal letter to staff revealed that Alibaba will invest $1 billion in a technology fund established by Zhang.

Alibaba has previously announced plans to spin off its cloud division as a separate, publicly traded company. This plan is still on track and will be carried out under a separate management team to be appointed, pending the restructuring plan and relevant approvals.

In a major restructuring plan in March, Alibaba split into six business groups, enabling each unit to raise outside funding and go public. However, the company has faced challenges such as slowing economic growth and increased regulation from Beijing, leading to a significant drop in its share price.