On the afternoon of March 3, Junyang Lin, the technical lead of Alibaba's Qwen team, submitted his resignation. He bid farewell on social media in the early hours of the following day. On that same day, Bowen Yu, the leader in charge of post-training at Qwen, also departed from the company, with Hao Zhou stepping in to assume his responsibilities. Meanwhile, Bin Yuan Hui, the leader of Qwen Code, had already left his position in January.

Junyang Lin's departure is likely tied to organizational restructuring within the Qwen team. Tongyi Laboratory intends to divide the Qwen team and reduce its management scope, a move that diverges from Lin's perspective on technological trends.

The Qwen team holds a precarious position within Alibaba. On one hand, it commands respect in the global open-source community; on the other, Alibaba consistently assesses its accomplishments and value, scrutinizing the commercialization efficiency of open-source models and evaluating specific outcomes. Junyang Lin, Bowen Yu, and Bin Yuan Hui were all young talents nurtured by Alibaba. As a homegrown AI technology leader, Junyang Lin's exit has ignited widespread debate within the AI community.

Alibaba's organizational shifts took place amid relatively favorable external assessments and internal morale. For Alibaba, the needs of the organization must take precedence over individual aspirations.