Alibaba has identified Happy Horse as its latest AI video model after the tool surged to the top of major benchmark lists and drew attention across China’s AI sector. Reports from Yicai, The Star, ForkLog, and Global Times said the model either led the text-to-video leaderboard or topped both the text-to-video and image-to-video rankings on Artificial Analysis, pushing ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 down the order.
HappyHorse-1.0 is still in internal or beta testing, but Alibaba said API access is planned in the near future. Yicai and The Star said the model belongs to Alibaba Token Hub, a business group created last month as Alibaba sharpened its AI strategy, while ForkLog said the project is part of the ATH AI Innovation Unit.
Debut Draws Notice
The model’s sudden rise stood out because Alibaba’s earlier video tools under the Wan brand had not scored as highly on the same benchmark lists. The Star said prior Wan efforts ranked about 20 places lower, while ForkLog said Alibaba’s earlier Wan releases rarely entered the top 20.
That gap helped fuel speculation before Alibaba formally claimed the model, and The Star reported that the excitement briefly helped lift Alibaba shares by as much as 8 percent on Wednesday.
Global Times reported that Artificial Analysis uses blind testing and an Elo-style system, meaning users compare videos without seeing which model created them. The paper said HappyHorse-1.0 posted an Elo score of 1,383 in text-to-video, 111 points ahead of Seedance 2.0.
Yicai also said the model moved ahead of Seedance 2.0, Kuaishou’s Kling AI, and Google’s Veo 3 Fast on Artificial Analysis’ Video Arena leaderboard.
Token Hub Strategy
Happy Horse arrives as Alibaba pushes harder to make AI a bigger part of its business. Fortune reported that Alibaba recently reorganized its AI operations into the Alibaba Token Hub, which brings several units under Chief Executive Eddie Wu and is built around creating, delivering, and applying tokens.
The Star likewise said Alibaba revamped its business structure last month with a focus on monetizing AI, while Wu has made AI development the top priority across the company.
Fortune said Alibaba’s open-source Qwen models have attracted developers from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, while the company is also competing in AI video generation with Happy Horse and its Wan line.
ForkLog said Alibaba has set a goal of creating general artificial intelligence, showing that its video model work sits inside a much broader AI push.
Race for Revenue
Several sources described AI video generation as one of the few AI segments with a clearer path to revenue, which helps explain why competition is so intense. ForkLog called video generation one of the few areas with a clear monetization model, and The Star described it as a capital-intensive race with reliable monetization potential.
Yicai said the contest is no longer only about who can make a one-minute clip, but who can do it at lower cost, with better efficiency, and with results closer to reality.
The opening for Chinese rivals has grown as OpenAI stepped back from Sora, according to multiple reports. Yicai said OpenAI would pull Sora’s web and app services on April 26, while Global Times described Sora as shut down after an announcement in March, and both reports said Chinese video models have climbed global rankings since then.
ForkLog and The Star similarly said Chinese companies now occupy much of the leaderboard after OpenAI retreated from the segment.
Broader AI Spending
Alibaba’s activity around Happy Horse is also part of a wider investment push in artificial intelligence. A report carried by News.az said Alibaba Cloud led a 2 billion yuan, or about $293 million, funding round for ShengShu Technology, the startup behind the Vidu video generator, just two months after ShengShu raised another 600 million yuan.
Fortune also reported that Alibaba spent 123 billion yuan on capital expenditure in 2025 and, like other major tech companies, is under pressure to turn heavy AI spending into profits.
For now, Happy Horse has given Alibaba a high-profile win in a fast-moving field where rankings, cost, and commercial use all matter. Across the reports, Alibaba’s message is consistent: AI video, Token Hub, and model development are now central to the company’s next phase.
