In 2017, Alibaba made a breakthrough that was not created for the past 18 years: he founded the Damo research lab.

Therefore, Ma Yun has two major delivery which is a big deal: First, Alibaba will invest at-least 100 billion yuan on technology research and development within three years. The newly-created Alibaba Institute of Global Research “Damo Academy” is the entity that carries Alibaba NASA program, conducting basic science and disruptive technology specialising in innovative research.

Second, recruiting 100 top scientists and researchers from around the world. Conducting in depth research in quantum measurement, natural language processing, and machine learning, basically almost all the cutting-edge technologies you want are in the research field of Damo.

One of the principles that Ma Yun propose for Damo: Establishing it to live longer than Alibaba itself.

“One day, even if Alibaba is gone, Damo will continue to exist. Today, Alibaba has lived for 18 years. We still have 84 years to go, and Damo has to live for at least 85 years.”

The wild vision of Alibaba to nurture Damo so that it has the capability to consistently exploring the unknown through scientific and technological research and innovation. While the driving force behind the Academy is the pursuit of the betterment of humanity.