Alibaba sets up new chip subsidiary

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd announced on Wednesday the establishment of a dedicated chip subsidiary that aims to create customized artificial intelligence chips and embedded processors to further support the tech giant's sprawling cloud and internet of things businesses.

The company plans to launch its first indigenous AI interference chip - AliNPU - in the second half of 2019, Chief Technology Officer Zhang Jianfeng told its annual cloud computing conference in Hangzhou.

Zhang said the company has embarked on developing its own quantum processors, and is looking to roll out genuine quantum chips in two to three years.