Alibaba's AI Video Model Surges as Competitors Decline

WHO:

VentureBeat - Alibaba Cloud, OpenAI, ByteDance, Google, Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) AI Innovation Unit, Dr. Feifei Li (CTO of Alibaba Cloud), Eddie Wu (CEO of Alibaba)

WHAT:

VentureBeat - Alibaba Cloud released HappyHorse 1.1, an upgrade to its AI video generation model.

VentureBeat - HappyHorse 1.1 is now live on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio with full API access for enterprise customers and developers.

VentureBeat - The release includes a 40% sitewide launch discount for the first two weeks.

VentureBeat - OpenAI discontinued Sora due to financial unsustainability, costing approximately $1 million per day to operate.

VentureBeat - ByteDance indefinitely shelved the international rollout of Seedance 2.0 following copyright complaints from Hollywood studios.

VentureBeat - HappyHorse 1.0 holds the No. 2 position across all three Video Arena leaderboards, scoring 1,444 in both text-to-video and image-to-video categories.

VentureBeat - HappyHorse 1.1 includes multi-image reference capability (R2V), improved motion quality, audio-visual synchronization, and enhanced instruction-following for complex prompts.

VentureBeat - Alibaba has committed to investing $52.7 billion in building a global cloud network.

VentureBeat - Alibaba Cloud opened its first data centers in France, establishing its third European hub.

VentureBeat - The France deployment is part of Alibaba Cloud's plan to roll out enterprise-grade AI services in the second half of the year.

WHERE:

VentureBeat - Alibaba Cloud's new data centers are located in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

VentureBeat - Alibaba opened its fifth data center in Tokyo, Japan.

WHEN:

VentureBeat - OpenAI's Sora was discontinued on April 26.

VentureBeat - The Sora API is set to follow on September 24.

VentureBeat - Alibaba plans to roll out enterprise-grade AI services across Europe in the second half of the year.

VentureBeat - Alibaba opened its data center in France just five days before the HappyHorse 1.1 launch.

WHY:

VentureBeat - The release of HappyHorse 1.1 comes amid a contraction in the AI video generation market, creating opportunities for Alibaba.

VentureBeat - OpenAI's Sora was discontinued due to its financial unsustainability, generating only about $2.1 million in total revenue.

VentureBeat - ByteDance postponed Seedance 2.0's international launch due to legal threats from major Hollywood studios.

HOW:

VentureBeat - HappyHorse is built around a 15-billion-parameter unified self-attention Transformer that processes multiple media types in a single generation pass.

VentureBeat - The model's architecture allows for fewer integration points and faster time to production for enterprise buyers.

(UPDATED June 22, 2026 21:48 UTC)

Alibaba Cloud has launched HappyHorse 1.1, an upgraded AI video generation model now available on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio with full API access for enterprise customers and developers, and it's kicking off with a 40% sitewide discount for the first two weeks. This release comes just after Alibaba opened its new data centers in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as part of a broader strategy to roll out enterprise-grade AI services across Europe in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, OpenAI has discontinued Sora due to its financial unsustainability, while ByteDance has indefinitely shelved the international rollout of Seedance 2.0 following copyright complaints from Hollywood studios.