HappyHorse-1.0, which appeared on the benchmarking platform Artificial Analysis around April 7, without identifying its affiliations, climbed to the top<\/a> of blind-test rankings for both text-to-video and image-to-video generation.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The anonymous debut of the model had sparked online speculation about whether the developer was a tech giant such as Tencent<\/a> or Alibaba or an independent developer.<\/p>\n The Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba<\/a> closed 2.12% higher Friday after news of its involvement. Its stock rose 6.75% on Wednesday, lifted by a broader rally<\/a> in technology stocks after U.S.-Iran tensions eased, alongside speculation that Alibaba was behind the mysterious model.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stock Chart IconStock chart icon Alibaba has raced to expand its AI offerings amid intense competition in China, building on its flagship Qwen large language model and chatbot app.<\/p>\n While previous AI model series from Alibaba have included dedicated video generation capabilities,\u00a0none have generated the same level of\u00a0buzz\u00a0or ranked as highly as\u00a0Happy Horse has in just a matter of days.\u00a0<\/p>\n HappyHorse-1.0 could strengthen Alibaba’s position in video generation, an area where competitors have faced setbacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n OpenAI recently discontinued its Sora video generation app and platform, citing a strategic shift to focus on coding tools, corporate clients and AGI development amid high compute costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n While OpenAI’s exit could cede more ground to Chinese competitors, ByteDance was recently forced to pause the rollout of its viral Seedance 2.0 following copyright disputes<\/a> with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms.<\/p>\n Alibaba Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu has made AI development the overriding priority<\/a> for the tech giant’s sprawling business, which also includes chip design and data centers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alibaba has previously integrated its AI models into its other e-commerce, advertising and entertainment products, and could be aiming to do the same with Happyhorse.<\/p>\n![\"hide](\"https:\/\/static-redesign.cnbcfm.com\/dist\/a54b41835a8b60db28c2.svg\")
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