Alibaba Cloud founder Wang Jian believes the AI boom sparked by OpenAI’s ChatGPT may not last in its current form. In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg, the Alibaba Cloud visionary said up to 90% of current AI tools and services could vanish within the next 10 years.
“Probably 90% of the AI people are talking about… will go away,” Wang said. “But that’s not bad — it helps us explore.”
Wang warned that the focus on chatbots has created a “bias” in how the world understands AI. While ChatGPT sparked global interest, he believes AI has much broader potential that has yet to be tapped.
Wang, a former Microsoft Research scientist, helped build Alibaba’s $16 billion cloud business from scratch. His work also led to the creation of the Qwen model, a Chinese AI system seen as a rival to OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Gemini.
Wang criticized Silicon Valley’s approach to AI hiring, where companies like Meta and OpenAI are offering massive salaries to top engineers. “It’s not about hiring the most expensive person,” he said. “It’s about hiring the right person.”
He believes true innovation comes from creativity, not just money — especially in the early stages of technology. Reflecting on his own journey, Wang said he once pitched Alibaba’s cloud idea without a business model, only the belief that computing would become essential like electricity or oil.
As China continues to invest heavily in AI, Wang sees the country as a testing ground for bold ideas. “People are just fascinated about technology,” he said. “They’re doing a lot of different things.”
