Then came a leadership reshuffle. Alibaba announced in June 2023 that Daniel Zhang, who had been CEO since 2015 and chairman from 2019, would step down from both roles to focus on the cloud business. But just three months later, Zhang suddenly quit the cloud unit.
Eddie Wu, a co-founder of Alibaba, took over as CEO and the head of cloud. Joe Tsai, another co-founder, stepped up to take on the role of chairman.
That was one of the most tumultuous times in Alibaba's history.