お知らせ • Jun 04
Alibaba.com Brings Accio Work Agentic AI Platform To Smart Manufacturing Week In Birmingham Alibaba.com was the Official Agentic Business Partner of Smart Manufacturing Week in Birmingham from 3-4 June 2026, bringing Accio Work, its agentic AI platform for businesses, to the show floor to demonstrate how agentic AI can address the operational pressures facing UK manufacturers. At the heart of the partnership is a bespoke 'Event Edition Agent' built specifically for Smart Manufacturing Week. It brings together three practical tools in one place: 'AI Expert Agents', 'Smart Navigation' and 'Industry Trend Reports', giving visitors a live, hands-on way to find suppliers, compare products and make faster procurement decisions on the spot. Accio Work acts as an agentic business team for SMEs, handling sourcing, supplier research and procurement and marketing tasks that would otherwise consume hours of manual effort. According to Alibaba.com's recent study of over 500 UK SME owners, 40% are using AI at least once a week to help overcome day-to-day operational challenges. Time-saving was cited as the primary driver for the adoption (37%), followed by improving efficiencies (36%) and better decision making with better data and insights (22%). The findings shed light on where that time is actually going, and which risk detracting business owners' attention from business growth. More than a third (35%) said dealing with emails take up the most time each month, followed by bookkeeping (31%) and invoicing (17%). 19% of those surveyed said chasing late payments was the time-consuming task they liked the least, while over a quarter of SMEs use their evenings to complete such tasks. Over half (53%) of SMEs believe that running their small business has become more complex in recent years. One of the biggest challenges is knowing which products to stock, develop or launch was a challenge, cited by 49% of respondents. According to the research, the most frequently used AI-powered tools and services include research tools (26%), writing tools (25%), and AI assistants, such as chatbots (24%). Attendees at Smart Manufacturing Week can meet the Alibaba.com team at the AI Sourcing Lounge on Stand E40, where they will explore the latest innovations in smart sourcing, supplier discovery and AI-driven manufacturing solutions including their agentic AI platform Accio Work designed to help businesses improve efficiency, resilience and growth. お知らせ • Jun 03
Home plus Reportedly Puts Its Remaining Operations Up for Sale Home plus Co.,LTD. has put its remaining operations up for sale after agreeing to dispose of its supermarket arm, industry sources said on 02 June 2026, courting domestic and foreign buyers as the debt-laden retailer seeks funding ahead of a court-imposed restructuring deadline. According to the sources, Homeplus's sales adviser, PwC Korea, has sent teaser materials to more than 10 domestic and overseas strategic investors as part of a sale process for the retailer's hypermarket and online businesses. Potential buyers include South Korean retail groups LOTTE Corporation (KOSE:A004990), SHINSEGAE Inc. (KOSE:A004170) and CJ Corporation (KOSE:A001040), as well as Chinese e-commerce companies Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) and Temu. The push follows Homeplus's May agreement to sell its supermarket unit, Homeplus Express, to Harim Group's NS Shopping for $80 million in cash, with the buyer also assuming part of the division's liabilities. The transaction would ease the retailer's liquidity strain, though additional funding would still be needed to stabilize operations, the company noted. "The sale of Homeplus Express is expected to improve liquidity, but because the proceeds will not be received for another two months, we need additional funding both to maintain operations until the cash inflow arrives and to implement the rehabilitation plan," the company said in a statement. An escalating liquidity crisis compounds the challenge, despite MBK Partners' provision of KRW 100 billion in debtor-in-possession financing in March. The company is currently seeking a KRW 100 billion bridge loan from its largest creditor, Meritz Financial Group, to sustain operations until cash from the Express sale arrives. The talks have deadlocked, however, with Meritz demanding a personal guarantee from MBK Chairman Michael Kim, immediate repayment once the proceeds land and a 6% interest rate. Homeplus must win court approval for its rehabilitation plan by July 3 or face the prospect of liquidation. Even if the court extends the deadline to September, industry observers warn that the risk of liquidation would rise sharply if the company cannot keep its remaining locations open, with dozens of stores already idled. Homeplus temporarily suspended operations at 37 low-performing locations from May through July, out of its 104 hypermarkets total. It has delayed wage payments to employees and struggled to keep shelves stocked as supplier payments have fallen behind. Some believe the better path is not a package sale of the remaining hypermarket and online operations, but carving out valuable real estate assets from operating units to lower the cost of acquiring the core retail business. "Finding a buyer for Homeplus's entire store network will be challenging, so selling prime locations separately could be one way to improve the chances of a deal," one industry official said. お知らせ • May 14
Alibaba Group Holding Limited announces Annual dividend, payable on July 13, 2026 Alibaba Group Holding Limited announced Annual dividend of USD 1.0300 per share payable on July 13, 2026, ex-date on June 11, 2026 and record date on June 11, 2026. お知らせ • May 01
Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group Launches Accio Work and Accio Launchpad Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (Alibaba International) recorded over 230,000 businesses worldwide who have successfully deployed autonomous Agentic Business Teams to manage their e-commerce operations. Accio Work acts as a full-stack digital workforce, where users assign roles to specialized AI agents that collaborate to execute complex tasks. Building on this momentum, Accio Work is expanding to serve B2B sellers on Alibaba.com. Launching in late April, this new capability allows sellers to manage their entire Alibaba.com store directly through Accio Work -- from tracking performance and updating product listings to optimizing daily operations, all via simple natural language commands. In addition to these operational upgrades, Accio Work is extending the reach of its agentic business teams beyond digital retail with the launch of Accio Launchpad. This specialized program is designed specifically for non-product-focused enterprises such as cultural institutions, content creators and tech start-ups who want to create branded merchandise but lack manufacturing expertise. Managed by an autonomous agent team, it guides users from abstract concepts to tangible production by managing material specifications, supplier matching and quality control. The Accio Launchpad program is now open to applications from eligible businesses seeking access to AI-powered tools, expert support and the resources to bring branded merchandise to market. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. The Mucha Foundation Art Museum in Prague (Czech Republic) recently demonstrated the power of this approach while developing a souvenir line honoring Art Nouveau legend Alphonse Mucha. Tasked with producing high-craftsmanship items like custom umbrellas and embossed magnets without an internal manufacturing team, the museum used Accio Work to transition from idea to production in record time. The Agentic Business Team executed thousands of steps, including selecting advanced 3D-embossing techniques and negotiating with specialized manufacturers. The result is a curated, limited-edition collection scheduled for launch this June, transforming artistic vision into reality without the need for fragmented tools or industry connections. お知らせ • Apr 29
Alibaba Group Holding Limited to Report Q4, 2026 Results on May 13, 2026 Alibaba Group Holding Limited announced that they will report Q4, 2026 results at 9:30 AM, US Eastern Standard Time on May 13, 2026 お知らせ • Apr 08
Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium Publishes Four Specifications Defining In-Network Compute, Chiplets, Manageability and 200G Performance Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium, the industry standards organization developing the open scale-up interconnect for next-generation AI workloads, announced the ratification of the next UALink Specification, which encompasses three major additions – In-Network Compute, Chiplet Definition, and Manageability. The new specifications support the deployment of UALink solutions in multi-workload environments, while simultaneously helping improve UALink technology efficiency, performance for AI workloads and ease of implementation. The UALink Consortium provides a standardized foundation for accelerator connectivity at scale, helping drive innovation, increase deployment flexibility and support the rapidly growing performance demands of next-generation AI workloads. The new specification update is facilitated through UALink Consortium’s open governance model, which fosters innovation while enabling a robust, multi-vendor supply chain, providing system designers and cloud providers with the necessary flexibility to deploy interoperable solutions without vendor lock-in. New UALink Specifications: UALink Common Specification 2.0 introduces In-Network Compute for UALink technology, facilitating computation and communication between accelerators. Reduces latency, saves bandwidth, and improves scaling efficiency for distributed training and inference for AI solutions for complex and multi-workload environments for UALink systems. UALink 200G Data Link and Physical Layers (DL/PL) Specification 2.0 split the DL/PL Specification from the UALink Common Specification to enable UALink to move quickly as new physical layers and speeds are needed by the industry without requiring changes to the other specifications. UALink Manageability Specification 1.0 introduces UALink as a system with centralized control and management planes. Utilizes standardized protocols, modeling and APIs like gNMI, Yang, SAI and Redfish. UALink Chiplet Specification 1.0 defines the necessary information to integrate UALink technology into chiplet-based SoCs, including interfaces, form factors, flow control and chiplet management standardization. Fully compliant with the UCIe 3.0 Specification for simplified integration into existing chiplet ecosystems. All of the UALink specifications are available for public download. 
