Alibaba’s HappyHorse-1.0 Tops AI Video Rankings

An anonymously posted model called HappyHorse-1.0 appeared on the Artificial Analysis Video Arena leaderboard around April 7 and quickly rose to the top in several video-generation categories. On Friday the team behind HappyHorse created a new account on X and attributed the project to Alibaba’s ATH AI Innovation Unit; Alibaba’s main account reposted the announcement and confirmed the attribution. Shares of Alibaba in Hong Kong rose 2.12% on Friday after the reveal; earlier in the week the stock had climbed 6.75% when technology shares gained as tensions between the United States and Iran eased.

HappyHorse-1.0 led Artificial Analysis rankings in text-to-video, image-to-video and text-to-video with audio. It placed second in image-to-video with audio, where ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 held the top spot. Artificial Analysis conducts blind tests in which human reviewers compare short videos without knowing which model produced them, and it aggregates results with an Elo rating system similar to chess rankings. The platform’s organizers say scores for new models can shift quickly because fewer reviewers have tested them; a gap of about 60 Elo points generally indicates one model wins consistently.

Reaction on X was mixed. Some users noted HappyHorse trails Seedance 2.0 in rendering fine character details and in producing smooth motion across frames. Other users highlighted areas where the model could improve consistency across multiple shots. Alibaba’s earlier Wan video model ranked near 20th on Artificial Analysis, making HappyHorse’s rise a substantial change in the company’s performance on that benchmarking site.

Alibaba has been expanding its AI work under CEO Eddie Wu. The company already offers the Qwen family of large language models and a commercial chatbot and has integrated AI tools into online shopping, advertising and entertainment products. Company statements indicate 2026 will be an important year for accelerating AI development. The ATH unit said it will open a programming interface so external developers can test HappyHorse and build commercial applications.

The development comes as other firms have scaled back or changed their plans. OpenAI closed its Sora video app, citing high computing costs and a refocus on coding tools, enterprise customers and core AI research. ByteDance halted the rollout of Seedance 2.0 after Hollywood studios and streaming services raised copyright complaints. Many of the top-ranked video-generation products on Artificial Analysis are currently from Chinese companies.

Alibaba and China Telecom announced plans to build a computing center in southern China that will use Alibaba-designed Zhenwu chips. The facility is expected to house 10,000 Zhenwu processors capable of running models with hundreds of billions of parameters and will be owned and operated by China Telecom.

Analysts are monitoring HappyHorse’s ability to sustain its benchmark performance and to move from test leader to a product used by developers and commercial customers.