Bio

Jingren Zhou is a Chinese computer scientist. He is a vice president of Alibaba Group, the chief technology officer of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, deputy head of DAMO Academy, and a member of the Alibaba Partnership. He has temporarily overseen the Qwen large-language-model team since March 2026, following the resignation of Lin Junyang. Before joining Alibaba in 2015, he spent eleven years at Microsoft Research as a research partner.

Education

Zhou entered the University of Science and Technology of China in 1994 from Chengdu No. 12 Middle School, admitted into the USTC Pilot Class for Educational Reform, an accelerated program for high-aptitude students. He completed the bachelor's degree in 1999 and moved to the United States for doctoral study, completing the PhD in computer science at Columbia University from 1999 to 2004.

Career

Zhou joined Microsoft Research in 2004 and remained at the company for eleven years, ultimately as a research partner. The Microsoft period covered work on database systems, distributed computing, and large-scale data infrastructure, with publications across the principal database and systems venues.

He joined Alibaba in 2015 to lead the company's data-platform and large-scale-systems engineering organizations. He was appointed deputy head of the DAMO Academy, Alibaba's research-and-development institute, and was named chief technology officer of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence in December 2022. The CTO role placed him at the head of Alibaba's cloud-computing research and engineering organization, including the Tongyi AI Lab established in 2023 by consolidating Alibaba's AI teams under DAMO.

Zhou was named to the Alibaba Partnership in October 2025, the company's senior governance body. Following the resignation of Qwen tech lead Lin Junyang on 3 March 2026, Zhou took on temporary oversight of the Qwen team in addition to his Cloud and DAMO responsibilities. Alibaba subsequently recruited Zhou Hao from Google DeepMind as Lin's longer-term replacement.

Notable contributions

Zhou's published record from the Microsoft Research period covers database systems, query optimization, and distributed computing. The Alibaba period has overseen the buildout of the Tongyi AI Lab and the Qwen open-weights model line.

• Microsoft Research database and systems work (2004 to 2015). Research-partner-level publications across the principal database and systems venues.
• Alibaba Cloud Intelligence CTO (December 2022 onward). Oversight of Alibaba Cloud's research and engineering organization.
• Tongyi AI Lab (established 2023). Consolidated Alibaba's AI research teams under DAMO Academy.
• Qwen line. Senior oversight, including the open-weights releases that surpassed six hundred million model downloads globally under Lin Junyang's tech leadership and the temporary direct leadership role assumed in March 2026.
• Alibaba Partnership (October 2025). Member of the company's senior governance body.
• Honors. IEEE Fellow (2019).

Affiliations

• University of Science and Technology of China: Bachelor's student, USTC Pilot Class for Educational Reform, 1994 to 1999.
• Columbia University: Doctoral student, computer science, 1999 to 2004.
• Microsoft Research: Researcher and research partner, 2004 to 2015.
• Alibaba Group: Vice President; CTO, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence (since December 2022); Deputy Head, DAMO Academy; Member, Alibaba Partnership (since October 2025); temporary oversight of Qwen (since March 2026).

Position in the field

As of May 2026, Zhou is the senior research-and-development executive at Alibaba's cloud and AI organization and the most senior public face of Qwen following Lin Junyang's departure. The Tongyi AI Lab he oversees has produced one of the largest open-weights model portfolios in the industry, with the Qwen line spanning text, vision, audio, and code in successive generations.

The framing of Zhou's role at Qwen is transitional rather than permanent. Industry coverage has noted that the recruitment of Zhou Hao from Google DeepMind was the company's preferred outcome for tech leadership of the Qwen team, with Zhou's direct oversight covering the gap between Lin's resignation and Zhou Hao's onboarding. The structure follows Alibaba's broader pattern of pairing senior research-leader operators with newly recruited technical principals during leadership transitions.

Birth year is not publicly disclosed in English-language sources.

Sources

• Alibaba names AI lab leader Zhou Jingren new group partner. South China Morning Post coverage of the October 2025 Alibaba Partnership appointment.
• Alibaba adds cloud unit executive to top leadership group. Caixin Global coverage of the Alibaba Partnership appointment.
• Jingren Zhou Google Scholar. Google Scholar profile with publication record across the Microsoft and Alibaba periods.
• Jingren Zhou ACM Speakers Bureau. ACM Distinguished Speakers biographical entry.
• Aibase: Alibaba's AI strategy under Zhou Jingren. Industry coverage of the Tongyi AI Lab structure under Zhou's oversight.