Alibaba reveals HappyHorse 1.0 AI video model after topping global benchmarks in stealth debut

Stealth Alibaba Video AI Model Tops Global Ranking on Debut

A mysterious video generation model that swept to the top of global benchmarks was developed by a team under Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., sending ripples across China's AI industry. The model, dubbed Happy Horse 1.0, hit the top spot on the text-to-video leaderboard of Artificial Analysis this week, without disclosing the identity of its creators until Friday. It's the product of the nascent Alibaba Token Hub's AI innovation team, according to a newly created account on X, which also said the product is still in development. Happy Horse pushed ByteDance Ltd.'s celebrated Seedance 2.0 into second spot and marked Alibaba's best-scoring video product to date. Its earlier efforts topped out some 20 spots lower on the list, under the Wan brand. The exceptional performance on benchmarks and mysterious background led to excitement and guessing games among the AI and investor community in China, with many making the link to Alibaba and pushing its shares up as much as 8% on Wednesday. Happy Horse "is a success" for Alibaba, Jefferies analyst Thomas Chong wrote in a note this week. Video generation is a capital-intensive and hotly contested race for artificial intelligence developers, as it's proven to be one of the few sources of reliable monetization. With OpenAI's retreat from the segment last month, the opportunity for Chinese companies has only grown larger, and most of the Artificial Analysis leaderboard is populated with products from Chinese companies. Generated video samples posted by the benchmark providers showed Happy Horse performing well against Seedance. Bloomberg could not independently verify the sources of those videos. Hangzhou-based Alibaba released the latest version of its flagship Wan video generator, developed by its Tongyi lab, earlier this month. The company hasn't previously spoken publicly about supporting multiple teams working on parallel AI creative tools, though Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu has made AI development the overriding priority for all parts of the sprawling business. China's largest e-commerce company has made a decisive pivot toward AI, headlined by Wu's statement that it's now pursuing artificial general intelligence as its primary goal. The company last month revamped its business structure with a focus on monetizing AI. On Wednesday, it also announced a new four-member technology committee made up of top leaders -- and chaired by Wu -- and elevated the Tongyi research lab into its own business unit led by Zhou Jingren, formerly the chief technology officer of Alibaba Cloud. Read more about China's push into AI video AI Video Creation Leads China's Kuaishou to 88% Stock Surge Kuaishou AI Strategy in Jeopardy as Costs Mount: Equity OutlookBloomberg Terminal ByteDance's New Video Model Sparks Rally in China AI App Stocks Alibaba-Backed Video AI Startup PixVerse Raises $300 Million Alibaba Unveils Third Closed-Source AI Model in Focus on Profit

Alibaba just revealed it's behind a viral AI video model dominating leaderboards

The Alibaba logo is pictured during a tour at the Alibaba office in Beijing on April 1, 2026. A mysterious AI video model that has ascended global leaderboards has been confirmed as a project from Chinese tech giant Alibaba, in a development that could boost the company's artificial intelligence ambitions. HappyHorse-1.0, which appeared on the benchmarking platform Artificial Analysis around April 7, without identifying its affiliations, climbed to the top of blind-test rankings for both text-to-video and image-to-video generation. The developers revealed in a newly created X account Friday that HappyHorse was part of Alibaba's ATH AI Innovation Unit and that the project was still under development. Alibaba confirmed to CNBC that the post was genuine. The anonymous debut of the model had sparked online speculation about whether the developer was a tech giant such as Tencent or Alibaba or an independent developer. The Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba closed 2.12% higher Friday after news of its involvement. Its stock rose 6.75% on Wednesday, lifted by a broader rally in technology stocks after U.S.-Iran tensions eased, alongside speculation that Alibaba was behind the mysterious model.

Alibaba leads $293m round in Chinese AI start-up after HappyHorse reveal

HappyHorse 1.0 shot up to the top ranks in the Artificial Analysis leaderboard. Chinese technology giant Alibaba's cloud division led a $293m funding round into ShengShu Technology, a 2023-founded Beijing-based start-up behind the Vidu AI video generation tool. Baidu Ventures and Luminos Ventures also participated in the round. The company's post-money valuation has not been disclosed. The latest investment comes after ShengShu raised nearly $88m in a Series A round in February. Vidu is marketed towards independent creators and animators, promising "effortless" production of content with "diverse artistic styles". The start-up is focusing on building 'world models' built on multimodal data such as audio, video and "touch". The latest funding, the company said, will help support the development of a "general world model". The company's latest Vidu Q3 Pro, which launched in January, places at the seventh rank on the Artificial Analysis leaderboard on text-to-video models, while making it to the 10th spot on the image-to-video rankings. Vidu competes with other Chinese AI heavyweights, including ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 and lead investor Alibaba's own video model HappyHorse 1.0 that shot up to the top rank on the Artificial Analysis leaderboard. Meanwhile, models from companies such as Singapore's Skywork AI and Beijing-based Kuaishou, behind KlingAI, also rank high on the boards. These models are hungry to fill the gap in the video generation space left by OpenAI after it shuttered Sora late last month. Top leaderboard rankings are increasingly being filled by Chinese models. HappyHorse was anonymously launched earlier this week before Alibaba claimed ownership on Friday (10 April). The model is a product of Alibaba's new Token Hub (ATH) innovation unit, placing number one on text-to-video and image-to-video ranks with no audio, while placing at the second spot with audio. Bloomberg News reported that HappyHorse 1.0, which is under beta testing currently, will be followed up with more new ATH products. Alibaba's share prices shot up following speculation that the company was behind the model. Alibaba made the decision last month to bring its AI services and development works under a single roof called ATH, led by CEO Eddie Wu. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Alibaba's New AI Video-Generation Model Tops Global Ranking After Debut

Alibaba Group's new artificial intelligence video-generation tool has taken the top spot in a global leaderboard that tracks AI models' abilities, a sign of Chinese firms' growing competitiveness in an area of AI used in advertising, content creation and entertainment. The model, called HappyHorse 1.0, has ranked No. 1 on third-party website Artificial Analysis' text-to-video leaderboard since it was released earlier this month. But its provenance had been a mystery, and Alibaba didn't reveal itself as the developer until Friday. HappyHorse "is currently under internal beta test and we are expecting to launch API access for the model in the near future," said a spokesperson at Token Hub, Alibaba's newly created AI-focused unit. Developers usually use an API key, which works like a password, to access AI models. Alibaba's move comes after TikTok parent ByteDance released Seedance 2.0, its video-generation model, earlier this year as Chinese internet companies vie to capture early demand in AI video. The Hangzhou-based company also invested in AI video start-ups, such as ShengShu Technology, the Chinese firm behind popular video-generation model Vidu. "The recent launch of Happy Horse (text to video) is a success," Jefferies analysts said in a research note this week.