According to ChainCatcher news reported by Cointelegraph, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is scaling back its metaverse business operations, with dozens of employees in its metaverse division being laid off. The metaverse division has operations in both Shanghai and Hangzhou and was established in 2021.It is reported that the metaverse division previously received "tens of billions of yuan" in investment and employed hundreds of staff. The division will continue to exist, providing metaverse applications, tools, and services.

ChainCatcher news, according to Titanium Media, domestic AI large model company Baichuan Intelligence has confirmed that it recently completed a Series A financing round, with a total financing amount reaching 5 billion RMB, and will start Series B financing with a valuation of 20 billion RMB. The Series A investors include leading companies and market-oriented investment institutions such as Alibaba, Xiaomi, Tencent, Yanzhi Capital, and China International Capital Corporation, as well as state-owned industrial investment funds like the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, and Shenzhen Capital Group.In addition to last year's 2.5 billion RMB financing (50 million USD angel round + 300 million USD A1 round), Baichuan Intelligence has now completed a total of 7.5 billion RMB in financing, setting a record for the highest total financing amount in the domestic AI large model field, and has become the latest company to reach a valuation of 20 billion RMB in the "first tier" of large model companies, following MiniMax, Dark Side of the Moon, and Zhipu AI.

ChainCatcher news, Chainbase, as Alibaba Cloud's first deep partner in the Web3 field, will leverage Alibaba Cloud's powerful tools to further empower the cutting-edge technology exploration in the Web3 x AI track.This collaboration has significantly enhanced scalability, and with the help of Alibaba Cloud's global cloud computing infrastructure, developers in the Web3 field can now accelerate the development of blockchain applications and maximize the efficiency of obtaining and utilizing the value of on-chain data.Chainbase recently announced the completion of a $15 million Series A financing round led by Matrix Partners, with participation from Folius Ventures, DFG, Hash Global, JSquare, Mask Network, and Bodl Ventures.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, blockchain security company CertiK has migrated its cloud infrastructure in Asia to Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of the domestic e-commerce giant Alibaba.

ChainCatcher news, Ant Digital Technology Company, the blockchain division of Alibaba's financial technology subsidiary Ant Financial Group, has increased the registered capital of two subsidiaries. It has expanded the registered capital of its subsidiary Ant Blockchain Technology to approximately 200 million USD. The registered capital of another blockchain division, Ant Chain (Shanghai) Digital Technology Co., Ltd., has also increased to about 289 million USD.Ant Blockchain Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. recently amended its business registration with Chinese authorities, raising its registered capital from 100 million RMB to 1.5 billion RMB (206.4 million USD). This blockchain division was established in December 2018, and its registered business activities include software development, hardware retail, and information technology services.

ChainCatcher news, the Aptos Foundation and Alibaba Cloud, after a long-term collaboration, will enhance support for the Web3 industry in Japan. It is reported that Aptos and Alibaba Cloud will host a hackathon and promote Web3 education through Alcove, the first brand-united Move developer community in Asia, in order to drive the development of Web3 in Japan.

ChainCatcher news, MUA DAO announced a collaboration with Alibaba Cloud and Avalanche to launch the second phase of Alipay+ D-store and a Web3 crypto coupon campaign in Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Users can obtain the adorable MUA WAWA NFT as their own support for Web3 vouchers through games in the Alipay+ partner e-wallet and use it to purchase milk tea at a discounted price. Specifically, MUA is an AI + human modular universal asset protocol. Through the MUA7648 protocol initiated by MUA, it is accelerating the modularization of AI Agent assets, supporting infinite issuance and royalty recursion of asset splitting and combination, achieving value intercommunication between humans and AI Agents, and maximizing economic prosperity.

ChainCatcher news, Sui developer Mysten Labs will launch a series of new services in collaboration with Alibaba Cloud to support Move developers on Sui.It is reported that these products include AI-supported development environments, cross-university educational programming, community events, and Mandarin and Korean translations of Move documentation.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 asset data platform RootData announced a joint cloud service promotion with international cloud service provider Alibaba Cloud, which will offer one-stop cloud service discounts for Web3 enterprises. It is reported that the minimum discount for this promotion is as low as 25%, and there will also be some cloud service experience vouchers provided.RootData is a comprehensive Web3 asset data platform that covers tens of thousands of mainstream Web3 assets and institutional trading information. It presents data changes in a visual and structured manner through elements such as tags, ecosystems, and compilations, making it the preferred data platform for over 1 million users to query Web3 assets.

ChainCatcher news, AI metaverse startup Futureverse announced a partnership with Alibaba Cloud to bring high-performance computing technology to its AI music platform JEN.It is reported that this collaboration combines Futureverse's expertise in AI music solutions with Alibaba Cloud's secure and scalable cloud computing capabilities to further develop and establish high-performance AI infrastructure and security standards. JEN is the first version of Futureverse's general high-fidelity model for text-to-music generation.According to the crypto data platform RootData, in July 2023, Futureverse completed a $54 million Series A funding round, led by 10T Holdings, with participation from Ripple Labs and others.

ChainCatcher news, digital asset custody solution provider Cobo announced a partnership with Alibaba Cloud, aiming to leverage Alibaba Cloud's computing and intelligent tools to launch an enterprise-level "Wallet as a Service" solution for developers and organizations, supporting the integration of Cobo's custody wallet API, SDK, and multi-party computation (MPC) custody technology into applications.

ChainCatcher news, to celebrate the launch of Hong Kong's first licensed exchange for retail users, HashKey Exchange, HashKey Exchange, Avalanche, Alibaba Cloud, and MUA DAO jointly initiated the HashKey HAHA MUA Carnival. Additionally, the event will be co-hosted by InvestHK, Degame, QuestN, Shrapnel, Space Nation, SNFT, and SecondLive.It is reported that participants will have the opportunity to earn MUA token points, a chance to redeem a $3,000 prize pool, limited edition wearable devices, and exclusive Shrapnel NFTs.

ChainCatcher news, Web3 full-stack game solution COMBO has reached a partnership with Alibaba Cloud to continuously promote game-centric Rollup, providing high availability, low latency, and stable development tools for Web3 game developers.Previous news, Web3 full-stack game solution COMBO launched an $80 million ecosystem fund, which will be provided to developers creating Web3 games on COMBO.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptopotato, former Alibaba executive Toby Rush stated that NFT tickets have advantages over traditional systems, as they can solve the scalping problem.Toby Rush pointed out that due to the unique verifiability of NFTs, authenticity can be easily confirmed on the chain and cannot be forged. Scalping behavior can be controlled through secondary fees or royalties. This means that organizers can at least earn a commission from each secondary sale, unlike traditional systems where scalpers are the only ones profiting from secondary sales.

ChainCatcher news, Zhang Dayong, the head of payment business at Lazada, the Southeast Asian e-commerce giant under Alibaba, has joined the Hong Kong-based crypto institution Hashkey Group as CCO (Chief Commercial Officer).According to reports, Hashkey Group is one of the largest crypto financial institutions in Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong. The group's Hashkey Pro is currently one of only two crypto trading platforms in Hong Kong to have obtained a compliant operating license. Zhang Dayong's joining signifies another internet giant executive officially entering the Web3 space.Zhang Dayong has extensive experience in the internet payment sector. Before joining Alibaba's subsidiary Lazada, he worked at Ant Group and served as a senior executive for Alipay in Southeast Asia. He joined Alipay in 2008, responsible for its operations in the Southeast Asian region. In September 2021, Southeast Asian e-commerce giant Lazada created a new position for Zhang Dayong to lead the group's payment business in Southeast Asia.