The Alibaba investment executive who bet big on Kimi has left, and she sent off her departure with a rock song

By Lili Yu

Edited by Jing Liu

"An Yong Waves" has learned from multiple sources that Hu Xiao, the Alibaba strategic investment executive and managing director who helped drive Alibaba's investment in Moonshot AI, has left the company.

Roughly 20 days ago, "An Yong Waves" first caught wind of the news from several AI investors. But it wasn't until the evening of September 13, just before the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, that Hu made it official. She posted partial lyrics from "Can't Stop" by the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers on her WeChat Moments, appending a screenshot showing her 2,749 days at Alibaba — "March 6, 2017 – September 13, 2024" — in what appeared to be a farewell to her seven-year tenure.

Public records show Hu has a strong financial research background. She previously worked at KPMG Huazhen, CICC's equity research department, Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited, and Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) Limited. She joined Alibaba Group's strategic investment department in March 2017.

According to sources, Jiang Shanshan, another Alibaba strategic investment director who also participated in the Moonshot AI deal, will be moved to a different position as well. Jiang previously served as a senior consultant at PwC's advisory practice, vice president at Unitas Capital, and investment director at Permira. She joined Alibaba's strategic investment department in 2018.

Personnel changes at Alibaba's strategic investment arm are hardly unusual. What made Hu's departure noteworthy was her role in the Moonshot AI investment during her tenure.

As is well known, Alibaba — which has been "running a swarm of LLM companies" — is the most aggressive among China's internet giants when it comes to investing in large model startups. But it's worth noting that among the so-called "Alibaba" investments in major LLM companies — MiniMax, Zhipu AI, Baichuan Intelligence, and 01.AI — all were made by Alibaba Cloud's strategic investment team. The Moonshot AI investment announced this year was the only one to come from the group-level strategic investment department.

One source noted that "after Alibaba completed its 1+6+N organizational restructuring, the strategic investment teams of each business group operate in parallel," so "the aggressive investments by Alibaba Cloud's strategic investment team may have put Alibaba's group-level strategic investment in a somewhat passive position." But soon enough, "the Alibaba strategic investment team that worked through the Lunar New Year holiday" pulled off a landmark deal in Chinese LLM financing history. In mid-February this year, Alibaba invested $800 million (approximately RMB 5.9 billion) in Moonshot AI for roughly 36% equity, in a preferred stock investment. This single round not only pushed LLM company funding to unprecedented levels but also transformed Moonshot AI, which had not previously enjoyed a fundraising advantage, into the highest-valued unicorn in the space at present.

Although a significant portion of Alibaba's $800 million bet on Moonshot AI came in the form of computing credits — allowing Alibaba to potentially secure a "new traffic entry point" on one hand while generating new orders for Alibaba Cloud on the other, which made sense from both perspectives — Alibaba's tilt toward Moonshot AI clearly didn't stop there.

We've also learned that in Moonshot AI's recent $300 million funding round, "Tencent Investment only put in about $35 million," with a substantial portion actually coming from Alibaba's follow-on investment to prevent dilution of its stake — "roughly around $100 million."

As for Hu's successor, no decision has been finalized. In a recent announcement, Suning.com Co., Ltd. disclosed that after Hu resigned from her director position for personal reasons, it nominated Shen Chen as a new director. Shen joined Alibaba in 2018 and currently serves as director of the strategic investment department, among other roles. She previously worked at CICC, CDH Investments, and the World Bank.

Regarding Hu's next move, one theory is that she may join Firstred Capital, where former Alibaba Group chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang (Xiaoyaozi) has landed. Looking at their career trajectories, Hu and Liu Xiaodan had a brief overlap. From October 2018, while at Alibaba, Hu also served as a director of Huatai Securities Co., Ltd. Liu Xiaodan, founder of Firstred Capital, had been the driving force behind Huatai United Securities until August 2019. Under her leadership, Huatai United's M&A business rose to become a top-tier player in the industry.

Image source | Can't Stop album cover

Layout | Yao Nan