On September 17, 2025, the Institute for Global Public Policy (IGPP) at Fudan University organized an international academic delegation to visit the Alibaba Global Headquarters in Hangzhou. The visit aimed to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of Alibaba’s cutting-edge achievements in AI, explore its international cooperation practices, highlight China’s latest developments and innovations in the field, and foster academic exchanges on AI open-source governance and global collaboration.

The delegation was led by Associate Professor Meijun Liu from IGPP and included Director Rainer Frietsch from the Center for Innovation and Knowledge Economy at the Fraunhofer Institute; Professor Caroline Wagner from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University; Professor Mike Thelwall from the School of Information Studies at the University of Sheffield; as well as Professor Xi Lin and Associate Professor Zhongyuan Wang from the Advanced Institute of Social Sciences at Fudan University, accompanied by IGPP students. Alibaba representatives included Hongyu Fu, Director of the AI Governance Research Center, along with experts Jingzhi Peng, Hantang Luo, Yuanfang Li, Wen Chen, and Li Dong.

During the visit, the delegation toured the Alibaba Xixi Campus Exhibition Hall, where videos and interactive displays highlighted Alibaba’s ecosystem integration and societal impact. Delegates also explored the corporate history exhibition, gaining comprehensive insights into Alibaba’s corporate culture, strategic vision, core business structure, frontier technology initiatives, and social responsibility efforts.

At the roundtable discussion, Director Fu welcomed participants and elaborated on the center’s mission, emphasizing Alibaba’s AI open-source philosophy and initiatives. Expert Peng presented the “Qianwen” large language model as a case study, illustrating Alibaba’s strategic approach to AI open-source development.

International scholars discussed challenges and opportunities in AI open-source global governance. Professor Wagner addressed issues of data selection, storage, and intellectual property. Director Frietsch highlighted Europe’s constraints in AI development, while Professor Thelwall emphasized prioritizing practical application scenarios over pursuing technological autonomy alone. The discussion also covered large-model privacy protection, accessibility of computing resources, and the fragmented development of AI within the EU.Participants acknowledged that Alibaba’s AI open-source philosophy and practices are internationally leading. They noted that its open collaboration model plays a key role in accelerating global AI development, promoting technological inclusivity, and generating social value.

The visit facilitated high-level dialogue between international scholars and Chinese technology enterprises, laying the groundwork for future global collaboration in AI open-source governance and innovation.