On Tuesday, Alibaba’s cloud unit partnered with Fudan University to launch what is being hailed as China’s largest cloud-based computing platform for universities. This collaboration highlights the close ties between major tech companies and academic institutions amidst the ongoing rise of AI technology. The Computing for the Future at Fudan platform enables intelligent computing and supports the training of large language models with trillions of parameters. Alibaba Cloud founder, Wang Jian, attended the launch event and expressed his anticipation for enhanced collaboration between industry and education. The platform has already released its first scientifically used large model, equipped with 4.5 billion parameters. Official statements highlight its remarkable impact on short- and medium-term weather forecasting, significantly reducing forecast time from hourly to a mere 3 seconds. [Fudan University, in Chinese]