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Public story · 2026-03-04 · source-backed
Junyang Lin (tech lead who built Qwen from lab project to 600M+ downloads) and Yu Bowen (post-training head) resigned one day after Qwen 3.5 launched. Huibin (Qwen Code lead) had already left for Meta in January. The catalyst: Alibaba dismantled Lin's vertically-integrated R&D model, splitting the team into horizontal modules. Hao Zhou (ex-Google DeepMind Gemini) appointed as new lead. BABA shares dropped 5.3% intraday. Google is already recruiting ex-Qwen researchers. Despite turmoil, Qwen's MAU jumped from 31M to 203M in February. Simon Willison calls Qwen 3.5 "truly remarkable" but fears it may be "Qwen's swan song." (Bloomberg)
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Alibaba released Qwen / Shared entities / Shared topic / What happened next
Linked by a graph relationship (Alibaba released Qwen); both cover Alibaba, Qwen, Simon Willison; overlapping topics (alibaba, bowen, call, qwen).
Alibaba released Qwen / Shared entities / Shared topic / What happened next / Tension
Linked by a graph relationship (Alibaba released Qwen); both cover Alibaba, Qwen, Simon Willison; overlapping topics (already, code).
Alibaba released Qwen / Shared entities / What happened next
Linked by a graph relationship (Alibaba released Qwen); both cover Alibaba, Google, Meta, Qwen; picks up the Alibaba thread on 2026-05-01.
Anthropic criticizes Qwen / Shared entities / Same source domain / What happened next
Linked by a graph relationship (Anthropic criticizes Qwen); both cover Bloomberg, Google, Meta; reported by the same outlet (bloomberg.com).
Meta partners with Google / Shared entities / Same source domain / Shared topic / Earlier coverage
Linked by a graph relationship (Meta partners with Google); both cover Bloomberg, Google; reported by the same outlet (bloomberg.com).
Alibaba released Qwen / Shared entities / Shared topic / What happened next
Linked by a graph relationship (Alibaba released Qwen); both cover Alibaba, Qwen; overlapping topics (alibaba, already, call).
Linked by a graph relationship (Alibaba released Qwen); both cover Alibaba, Qwen; overlapping topics (alibaba, already, qwen).
Linked by a graph relationship (Alibaba released Qwen); both cover Alibaba, Qwen; overlapping topics (alibaba, download, qwen).