In the wee hours of March 4, 2026, Junyang Lin, the pivotal figure behind Alibaba's Qwen series, took to platform X to announce his resignation from the Qwen team. Just two days prior, the Qwen team had released four models from the Qwen3.5 small-scale series as open-source, garnering commendation from Elon Musk in the comment section. Concurrently, Alibaba declared a brand restructuring, consolidating its large model brands for both business (B-end) and consumer (C-end) markets under the unified banner of "Qwen." In a surprising twist, Binyuan Hui, another key member of the Qwen team, also announced his departure around the same time. Junyang Lin refrained from revealing whether he would be leaving Alibaba altogether or disclosing his future endeavors, and Alibaba has yet to issue an official statement.

Since Tongyi Qwen was made accessible to the public in September 2023, Qwen has undergone a remarkable transformation in less than three years. It has transitioned from merely being open to the public to establishing itself as one of the world's most expansive open-source ecosystems. Junyang Lin, born in 1993, initially pursued a computer science undergraduate degree before shifting his focus to foreign linguistics and applied linguistics for his master's. He joined Alibaba in 2019 and has been at the helm of Qwen's research, development, and open-source ecosystem construction since 2022. As one of Alibaba's youngest P10 technical leaders, he is also a vibrant contributor to the open-source community. The path he will take next remains shrouded in mystery.