Not necessarily, Alibaba is still working on it and the CEO is directly co-leading the team. Translated with Qwen 3.5:
> To all colleagues in the Tongyi Lab:
> The company has approved Lin Junyang’s resignation and thanks him for his contributions during his tenure. Jingren will continue to lead the Tongyi Lab in advancing future work. At the same time, the company will establish a Foundation Model Support Group, jointly coordinated by myself, Jingren, and Fan Yu, to mobilize group resources in support of foundation model development.
> Technological progress demands constant advancement — stagnation means regression. Developing foundational large models is our key strategic direction toward the future. While continuing to uphold our open-source model strategy, we will further increase R&D investment in artificial intelligence, intensify efforts to attract top talent, and move forward together with renewed commitment.
Also interesting experiences shared in that thread, even someone using it on a rented H200.