Alibaba Sizes Up Facebook, Amazon With R&D Funding Splurge

Alibaba started as an online marketplace but has since moved into cloud computing and artificial-intelligence initiatives. In the previous three years, its spending on R&D was about $6 billion--a fraction of what major U.S. technology companies spend. As part of the spending initiative, Alibaba Chief Technology Officer Jeff Zhang will lead a new research unit called the DAMO Academy--an acronym for discovery, adventure, momentum and outlook--that will establish R&D labs world-wide, including one in cooperation with the University of California, Berkeley. The academy, which will also include advisers from universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University and Peking University, will fund research into areas such as data analytics, quantum computing and machine learning. "For any major internet company to remain competitive in the future, they will have to invest in these technologies," said Mark Natkin, managing director at Beijing-based consultancy Marbridge Consulting.