Alibaba Group Holding last week announced the launch of an innovative global research program, “Alibaba DAMO (Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook),” designed to increase technological collaboration worldwide, advance the development of cutting-edge technology and strive to make the world more inclusive by narrowing the technology gap. The company expects to invest more than $15 billion in research and development over the next three years.
The Academy will oversee the opening of research and development labs worldwide and seek to recruit talented scientists and researchers to join the program. It is currently looking to recruit 100 talented researchers from around the world.
In the beginning, the Academy will focus on opening seven research labs in Tel Aviv, Israel, Beijing and Hangzhou, China, San Mateo and Bellevue, the US, Moscow, Russia, and Singapore.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, a Chinese e-commerce company that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services, electronic payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services via web portals, began in 1999 when Jack Ma founded the website Alibaba.com. In 2012, two of Alibaba’s portals handled $170 billion in sales. In September 2014, Alibaba’s market value was $231 billion, but went down to about $212 billion in December 2015.
“The Alibaba DAMO Academy will be at the forefront of developing next-generation technology that will spur the growth of Alibaba and our partners. We aim to discover breakthrough technologies that will enable greater efficiency, network security and ecosystem synergy for end-users and businesses everywhere,” said Alibaba Group’s Chief Technology Officer Jeff Zhang.
The labs will focus on both foundational and disruptive technology research including data intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), fintech, quantum computing and human-machine interaction. Within those broad research areas, the labs will focus on topics such as machine learning, network security, visual computing, and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
The labs will also collaborate with luminaries in the technology space and top educational institutions to explore technology breakthroughs aimed at improving the lives of technology end-users and boosting the efficiency and security of enterprises globally. For example, the Academy will cooperate with the University of California, Berkeley through its RISE Lab on areas such as secured real-time computing.
“Over the past 18 years, we have developed a robust technology infrastructure that supports the rapid growth of our business. With our global expansion, we have grown and refined our technology manifold. We are now looking for talented and driven researchers to join us in the quest for new disruptive technologies that would advance our every-day lives, benefit small businesses and narrow the technology gap to make our world a more inclusive place,” Zhang stated.
