Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba to open Israel R&D center
The Chinese ecommerce giant is opening seven R&D labs around the world including one in Tel Aviv.
By GLOBESA logo of Alibaba Group is pictured at its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, October 14, 2015. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has announced that it is opening an R&D lab in Israel. Speaking at Alibaba's Computing Conference in China, CTO Jeff Zhang unveiled a $15 billion global research program, which includes opening seven R&D labs worldwide over the next three years in Tel Aviv, Beijing, Hangzhou, San Mateo, Bellevue, Moscow, and Singapore. Zhang said that Alibaba is initially seeking to recruit 100 talented researchers from around the world.Zhang said, "Research areas will cover data intelligence, the Internet of Things, fintech, quantum computing and human-machine interaction. Within those areas, you’ll see a focus on such real-world applications as machine learning, network security, visual computing, natural language processing, among others."Zhang will head the academy overseeing the worldwide R&D labs, which will be called DAMO – Academy of Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook.Alibaba has already invested in Israel startups including $15 million in Infinity Augmented Reality and ecommerce search company Twiggle.
