Alibaba is designing AI chips around agents, and that changes what the race is actually about

Alibaba has announced its new AI processor, the Zhenwu M890, developed by its T-Head subsidiary. This chip boasts three times the performance of its predecessor, the Zhenwu 810E, indicating Alibaba's strategic shift towards an integrated AI system. The M890 is designed specifically for intelligent agents, requiring the ability to handle long contexts and coordinate multiple models in real-time. This focus on memory bandwidth and inter-model communication sets it apart from standard inference chips, highlighting Alibaba's vision for the future of AI computing.