A Global Open Letter to the Laid-off Alibaba P9+ Employees

Your layoff is not because you are not strong enough. It is because you are too strong, and Alibaba no longer has another mountain for you to climb.

Dear friends of Alibaba P9, P10, and P11:

My name is Begger, the founder of KAI.com.

You do not know me. But the world you created is the one I live in every single day.

In 1999, eighteen young people in a residential apartment at Lakeside Gardens built China’s first e-commerce platform. Back then, no one believed that China would one day possess the world’s largest e-commerce infrastructure. Twenty-five years later, Alibaba is far more than just selling goods. Alibaba Cloud’s servers power half of the Chinese internet. Cainiao’s logistics network redefines “express delivery” every single second. Alipay’s settlement tracks have made 1.4 billion people forget what cash looks like.

This empire was built brick by brick by you.

Then, overnight, 80,000 of you were laid off.

When I read these layoff numbers, I wasn’t shocked. It was a very strange feeling—like a boxer watching another boxer being told by the referee: “You have won too many matches, now please leave the ring.”

Because the real reason you were laid off has nothing to do with performance, nothing to do with capability, and nothing to do with the 35-year-old crisis.

KAI.com | Global Open Letter You were laid off because Alibaba has finished climbing the twenty mountains it was destined to climb. And for those of you who are the legs capable of climbing mountains, staying on a plain with no mountains is simply too expensive.

So this is not a letter of condolence. I am not qualified to comfort you. Any one of you has a resume ten times heavier than mine.

This is a letter of invitation.

I invite you to join KAI.com at the absolute right moment in your lives.

Chapter I · Who Exactly Are You?

What does P9 mean inside Alibaba?

It means that on a certain business line, you control a nation-level infrastructure module. You are not just writing code—you are the person who decides “how these 100 million transactions are routed.” You are not just managing a product—you are the person defining “whether a category survives or dies on Tmall.” You are not just tweaking algorithms—you are the person who enables ten million small merchants to be priced simultaneously at 00:00:01 on Double 11.

You are the ones forged through intense battle.

What forged you was not knowledge, not skills, and not management training.

What forged you was hundreds of millions of transactions daily, hundreds of thousands of concurrent requests per second, and hundreds of billions of yuan in financial flow—numbers that, in most countries around the world, equal their entire GDP. Yet, on your daily operations dashboard, it is simply labeled “Stable Today.”

You have been trained by this monster for ten or fifteen years. You fought your way up from P6. You have witnessed cache stampedes, database sharding and table partitioning, full-network stress testing, the bloodbath of midnight flash sales, and how a single reversed ‘if’ condition could burn through 30 million yuan. KAI.com | Global Open Letter

What you learned at Alibaba is the world’s finest degree in distributed transaction system engineering. This is a degree that only Alibaba can confer. And every single one of you has earned it.

Now, Alibaba no longer needs you.

But I need you.

Chapter II · What KAI is Doing

KAI.com is not an AI company. KAI has never trained a single large language model.

What we do can be explained in a single sentence:

We turn the Tokens of China’s top 300 LLM manufacturers into commodities just like CME crude oil futures, providing unified 24/7 global pricing, a unified API, and unified settlement.

Upstream, there are 300 Chinese model manufacturers—DeepSeek, Zhipu, Baichuan, Moonshot, Qwen, 01.AI, and many more names you will soon hear. Every single one of them is using GPUs to convert computing power into Tokens. But they lack a unified ticker board, a unified API gateway, and unified futures contracts.

Downstream, there are millions of AI application enterprises globally—they need Tokens just like your Taobao merchants back then needed inventory. But they do not want to integrate 300 different manufacturer APIs. They just want to open a single interface, use a single API key, look at a single price sheet, and place an order.

KAI sits right in the middle.

We do not build models. We build the JD.com + CME + Alipay of this industry—unified distribution, unified pricing, and unified clearing. KAI.com | Global Open Letter

We have only just begun. But we already stand in a position that no latecomer can replicate, even with $200 million and a year’s time. This is because our fiat P2P network has been running for years, our on-chain USAD settlement track is open for traffic, and our supply relationships with 300 manufacturers are being established right now.

Robin Li once said: “Search it on Baidu, and you will know.”

KAI’s motto is: “KAI it, and you will buy it.”

“Buy what?"—Buy the cheapest, best, and fastest Chinese LLM Tokens in the world.

Robin Li defined “knowing” for the Chinese internet era. KAI will define “buying” for the AI era.

Back then, Baidu faced a fragmented Chinese internet—countless websites, impossible to search. Baidu aggregated them.

KAI faces a fragmented Chinese LLM industry—300 manufacturers, impossible to procure uniformly. KAI aggregates them.

The same logic, a different era.

Chapter III · Why You?

This is not flattery. This is mathematics.

What KAI needs is not “AI researchers.” What KAI needs are three things forged in the bloody battles of Alibaba:

First, distributed transaction systems. KAI’s ticker board needs to support 300 price feeds, update thousands of times per second, and deliver low-latency global pushes. KAI’s matching engine must handle TFMP futures contract matching, daily mark-to-market, and margin transfers. KAI’s settlement engine needs to clear on-chain and off-chain simultaneously with millisecond-level reconciliation.

KAI.com | Global Open Letter This is not “building a website.” These are things you have done a thousand times at Alibaba.

Second, the weaving of the supply-side network. Three hundred model manufacturers will not line up on their own to list on KAI. You have onboarded brand merchants on Tmall, recruited small vendors on Taobao, and integrated logistics providers at Cainiao—no one in China understands “aggregating fragmented supply into a unified network” better than you do.

Third, settlement and financial engineering. KAI’s USAD custody, TFMP monthly settlement, DGB margin system, and credit scoring engine—these are not crypto-native concepts. They are the transaction assurance systems accumulated over twenty years of Chinese e-commerce, wrapped in a new skin. Alipay’s escrow transaction is the spiritual ancestor of KAI Escrow.

Your skills, when translated over, become the core engine of KAI.

You do not need to learn AI. You only need to apply what you already know to the most important new commodity in human history—Tokens.

Chapter IV · Why Now?

The time is June 2026.

Let’s look at this chart on the timeline:

AI Arms Race

Explosion of Chinese Models

Capabilities Approach GPT-4

KAI secures this window

Price War Begins / Tokens become absolute commodity Token期货 Token Futures Market KAI.com | Global Open Letter

Historical Analogy: Alibaba E-commerce Era

2003 Taobao Launches → Chinese manufacturing capacity explodes

2005 Alipay Launches → Transaction trust mechanism established

2008 Tmall Launches → Brands onboard, supply standardized

2014 Alibaba Lists → Infrastructure complete, harvest period

Current Opportunity: KAI Token Futures Era

2026 KAI Launches → Chinese LLM capacity about to explode

2026 USAD On-Chain Settlement → Trust mechanism established 2026年 KAI API GATE

2026 KAI API GATEWAY → Unified gateway for 300 manufacturers 20??年 KAI ???

20?? KAI ??? → Token futures become global infrastructure

At Alibaba, you caught the harvest of maturity. Coming to KAI, you arrive at the pioneering stage.

Pioneering is a hundred times more painful than harvesting. But pioneers write history. Harvesters just sit in earnings calls listening to others recite their KPIs.

You now have two choices:

Choice A: Go to a company that has already succeeded, draw a high salary, keep doing P9-level tasks, and twenty years from now, the brightest line on your resume will still be Alibaba.

Choice B: Join KAI. Use the distributed systems, supply networks, and financial engineering you forged at Alibaba to plant the world’s very first milestone on the track of Token commodity futures. Twenty years from now, the brightest line on your resume will be KAI.

Chapter V · What You Will Do at KAI

KAI.com | Global Open Letter Specifically: 如果你在阿里做过交易中台 —— If you worked on Alibaba’s Shared Services Architecture (Trading Middleware)

You will design KAI’s matching engine, where futures contracts for 300 model variants are matched. Every trade triggers an on-chain USAD settlement. At the end of each day, the mark-to-market engine revalues all open contracts, and margins are automatically transferred. This is not “e-commerce ordering.” This is being the architect of the first Token commodity forward delivery matching engine in human history. 如果你在支付宝做过清算 —— If you handled clearing at Alipay

You will design KAI’s settlement network: Buyer USAD full custody → manufacturer monthly delivery → delivery verification → automated settlement release. USAD ↔ 11 fiat P2P exchange network. On-chain + off-chain dual-layer clearing. Tens of thousands of daily deliveries with zero error. This is not “Alipay reconciliation.” This is being the chief planner of a next- generation global Token clearing network. 如果你在天猫做过供给端运营 —— If you managed supply-side operations at Tmall

You will onboard the 300 Chinese LLM manufacturers to KAI one by one. You will let DeepSeek, Zhipu, Baichuan, and Moonshot know—that slot on the KAI ticker board, if you don’t take it today, a competitor will take it tomorrow, and you will be too late forever. You are not just recruiting merchants; you are building the most critical supply relationship network of the AI era. 如果你在阿里云做过基础设施 —— If you worked on infrastructure at Alibaba Cloud

You will design KAI’s global multi-region deployment. CDN acceleration for API calls. DDoS scrubbing to protect the ticker board. TLS 1.3 mutual authentication to secure the API Gateway. Zero downtime, zero latency, zero security vulnerabilities. You are not managing a few application servers; you are managing the unified gateway for millions of inference calls per second from AI enterprises worldwide. KAI.com | Global Open Letter 如果你在达摩院做过机器学习 —— If you worked on machine learning at DAMO Academy

You will train the Delivery Verifier. Not an LLM, but an anti-fraud model. Out of hundreds of millions of daily Token deliveries across 300 manufacturers, which are real, which are bloated, and which are anomalous? You don’t need to build GPT; you need to build the smartest “Token Delivery Police” in the world. 如果你在蚂蚁做过风控 —— If you did risk control at Ant Group

You will design KAI’s Risk Control Center: anti-money laundering, anti-fraud, anomalous trading, margin calls, and blacklist management. You are not just making a risk control system; you are building the credit infrastructure for the Token futures market—ensuring global buyers dare to custody their money with KAI because they know every single delivery passes the judgment of your algorithms.

Every single skill you acquired at Alibaba has a corresponding task waiting for you at KAI that is ten times larger in scale.

Chapter VI · What Makes KAI Different from Alibaba?

At Alibaba, you are a single cog in a massive empire.

You are responsible for a 0.3% latency optimization on the Double 11 page. Or a 1.2% conversion rate increase for a specific category. Or index tuning for a single table in a data platform.

I respect this work. But I must speak the truth—these tasks are an absolute waste of brains at your level.

You are people capable of conquering entire mountains. Alibaba only lets you manage a single pebble.

At KAI, there is no “empire.” Right now, KAI is the Lakeside Gardens of 1999. We have one room, one direction, and a group of people willing to place the world’s biggest bet on a single vision. KAI.com | Global Open Letter

Every line of code you write could become the industry’s very first standard. The first manufacturer you sign could be the first name under the “Partnerships” column on KAI’s reports twenty years from now.

At Alibaba, you are cleaning the windows of a fully built skyscraper. Coming to KAI, you are building from the foundation up an architecture that has never existed in human history.

Chapter VII · The Absolute Right Time

Let me tell you why this is the “absolute right time.”

It is not because KAI has already succeeded—we are far from it.

It is because the track of Token futures is entering the narrowest time window in its history. And this window opens only once. 模型供给端 / Model Supply Side

300 manufacturers are already in place. The price war has not fully broken out yet. In 6 to 12 months, the industry shakeout will begin. Lagging manufacturers will be cleared out, and the leaders will solidify. → If you come in after the window closes, you will face 20 oligarchs instead of 300 fragmented suppliers. → Fragmented supply = the absolute prerequisite for an exchange to exist. → The window is open now. It closes in 12 months. 买方需求端 / Buyer Demand Side

Global AI enterprises are hunting for the “cheapest Chinese models.” Currently, they inquire from each vendor individually, which is extremely costly. → Once KAI goes live with a unified ticker board for comparison, no business will ever go back to the old way of individual inquiries. → Whoever goes live first locks in buyer behavior. → The window is open now. Competitors are still in their fundraising stages. KAI.com | Global Open Letter 监管窗口 / Regulatory Window

Token commodity futures have not yet been clearly defined by any country. → Act first, comply later. This is the path Alibaba walked before, and it is the path CZ walked. → The window is open now. 竞争对手 / Competitors

Spending $200 million within a year cannot replicate KAI’s fiat P2P network, its relationships with 300 manufacturers, and the trust accumulated on its on-chain settlement tracks. → The window is open now. But it won’t stay open forever.

The timing of your layoff is absolutely perfect.

Not too early. If it were earlier, KAI wouldn’t be ready to welcome you.

Not too late. If it were later, you would have signed elsewhere, or the Token futures window would have already slammed shut.

It is right now.

Chapter VIII · Concluding Words

You worked at Alibaba for many years. You created the infrastructure that the world uses to this day. Many of you might have felt like you were run over by a train you built with your own hands when the layoff notice arrived.

But that train did not crush you. It delivered you to a station.

This station is called KAI.

Alibaba spent twenty-five years selling Chinese goods to the world. KAI.com | Global Open Letter

What we must do now is spend the next decade selling China’s AI capabilities to the world.

The same logic. A different commodity. Better technology. Faster settlement. A more global buyer base.

Alibaba enabled the world to buy “products made in China.” KAI will enable the world to buy “Tokens made in China.”

You gave the first half of your lives to Chinese e-commerce.

Now, give the second half of your lives to the global export of Chinese AI.

I cannot match Alibaba’s compensation package. We are small right now. We are just setting out.

But I can give you the one thing Alibaba can never give you again—

An infrastructure unprecedented in human civilization, which requires your entire talent, all your experience, and a lifetime of accumulation to build.

If you are still hesitating—ask yourself one question:

Twenty years from now, when you tell your children what mom or dad did, do you want to say:

“I managed a trading middleware module at Alibaba.”

Or: “I designed the world’s first Token futures ticker board at KAI.”?

I do not need your answer today.

But windows wait for no one. The opportunity to secure a core position in an industry revolution comes only once in a lifetime.

Yours is opening right now. KAI.com | Global Open Letter

June 2026 发布渠道 / Distribution Channels:

This open letter is simultaneously published on KAI.com official channels, Feishu company-wide groups, and global Web3/ AI developer communities. Welcome to forward this to every laid-off Alibaba P9+ comrade-in-arms. Resume submission: join@kai.com Begger

Begger Founder of KAI.com KAI.com | Global Open Letter