Alibaba’s HappyHorse-1.0 Tops Global AI Video Benchmarks, Boosting Stock and Shaking Competitors

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Alibaba claims top spot with new AI video generation model

Alibaba’s newest AI video model has achieved the highest score on a leading industry test. This demonstrates that Chinese companies are becoming increasingly competitive in the development of AI tools for things like advertising, making content, and creating entertainment.

Summary

  • Alibaba Group’s HappyHorse-1.0 topped global AI video benchmarks shortly after its anonymous debut on Artificial Analysis.
  • The model was later confirmed as part of Alibaba’s ATH AI Innovation Unit, driving gains in its Hong Kong-listed shares.
  • Rival setbacks from OpenAI and ByteDance have opened room for Alibaba to strengthen its position in video generation.

HappyHorse-1.0 is a new model that recently appeared on the Artificial Analysis benchmark platform on April 7th. Initially, its creators weren’t revealed, but it quickly became a leader in text-to-video and image-to-video performance, gaining significant attention from industry experts.

The team behind the model has revealed it’s a project from Alibaba’s AI Innovation Unit, and is still being improved. They shared this information on X (formerly Twitter), clarifying Alibaba’s role after a period of speculation.

Before the reveal, people were intensely speculating about who was creating the project, with guesses including major companies like Tencent and Alibaba, and even the possibility of a smaller, independent group.

After the announcement, Alibaba’s stock price in Hong Kong rose 2.12% on Friday. The stock had already increased by 6.75% earlier in the week, boosted by a rebound in tech stocks as concerns about U.S.-Iran relations lessened and excitement about the project grew.

The company is growing its artificial intelligence capabilities in China, particularly by developing its Qwen large language model and related chatbot technology. While they previously launched video generation tools, those haven’t gained as much traction or performed as well as their language models in a similar timeframe.

As a researcher, I’ve been following the video generation landscape closely, and our HappyHorse-1.0 model has the potential to really boost Alibaba’s position in this area. It’s a critical time, as other companies are struggling. We’ve seen OpenAI pull the plug on their Sora platform – they’re now focusing on coding, enterprise solutions, and developing artificial general intelligence, largely because of the massive computing power Sora required. And ByteDance had to pause the release of Seedance 2.0 due to copyright issues with film and TV studios and streaming services. This creates a real opportunity for us.

Alibaba’s CEO, Eddie Wu, is making artificial intelligence a core part of the company’s future plans, with investments in areas like computer chips, cloud technology, and data centers. Alibaba has successfully incorporated AI into its shopping, advertising, and entertainment platforms, and a similar approach could be used for HappyHorse.

Data centre push and funding activity reinforce AI strategy

In addition to creating new video technology, Alibaba is also improving the systems that support it. They’re partnering with China Telecom to build a new data center in southern China, which is part of a larger national plan to boost China’s own computing power.

The facility is installing 10,000 Zhenwu AI chips from Alibaba, which can handle both the development and operation of artificial intelligence models. This system is designed to work with extremely large models – those containing hundreds of billions of parameters – making it one of the most powerful AI clusters available today.

Alibaba has developed chips that work together as one system, effectively turning a group of computers into a supercomputer. This setup significantly speeds up processing – with a delay of just four microseconds – making it more efficient for handling complex artificial intelligence jobs.

Alibaba Cloud recently invested in Shengshu Technology, a Chinese AI company, leading a $275 million funding round. Baidu Ventures and Luminous Ventures also participated. This new investment follows a previous funding round of 600 million RMB that Shengshu completed just two months prior.

Shengshu Technology is creating video-making tools through its Vidu platform, putting it in competition with major companies like ByteDance, Alibaba, and Kuaishou, as well as newer companies such as PixVerse. This investment highlights the growing competition in this area, even as the technology and underlying models continue to improve rapidly.

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2026-04-10 14:07