Zhou Jingren, who serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Alibaba Cloud and also holds the position of head of Tongyi Lab, has recently been elevated to the status of an Alibaba partner. The partner team at Alibaba functions as the company's apex decision - making entity. Back in June of this year, the Alibaba partner team experienced a substantial reduction in size, with the number of partners plummeting to a mere 17, the lowest count since the company went public. The primary factor behind Zhou Jingren's appointment as a partner can be traced to the remarkable success of Tongyi Lab under his stewardship. Over the past year, the lab has managed to uphold the leading position of the Qwen model. This accomplishment has garnered high praise from Alibaba's management, who remarked that "maintaining such a leading edge in a highly competitive environment is no small accomplishment."