Alibaba Group Holding has reduced its investments in the metaverse, laying off dozens of employees from its Yuanjing division. This move aligns with other tech companies, including Meta and Baidu, that are scaling back their metaverse initiatives as attention shifts to artificial intelligence (AI).
While no official statement has been released by Alibaba regarding the restructuring of Yuanjing, the division was created in 2021 to explore virtual worlds and was once employed by several hundred people. The company has since focused on AI initiatives instead, as AI is seen as the next revolutionary technology.
