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Turing Award winner Yann LeCun joins as Chief Science Advisor to the AI Alliance and Project Tapestry, a new open-source platform designed to enable globally federated development of frontier open models while preserving sovereignty, local control, and long-term independence.
NEW YORK, April 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the AI Alliance, a non-profit AI research and open-source technology coalition with more than 200 member organizations, launched Project Tapestry to empower open and sovereign AI development globally. Project Tapestry will build a new open-source platform to enable distributed, globally federated training of frontier open models.
With Project Tapestry, the AI Alliance aims to create a new path for advanced AI development, one in which institutions, industries, and nations can join together to contribute to build more capable open base models, while retaining control of their data and the ability to build on the base to produce sovereign derivative models aligned to their own priorities, industries, culture, laws, and values.
Alongside Project Tapestry, the AI Alliance announced that Yann LeCun, Turing Award laureate, Chairman of AMI Labs, and one of the most influential figures in modern artificial intelligence, will join as Chief Science Advisor to the AI Alliance. In that role, LeCun will help guide the scientific direction of the AI Alliance focusing on Project Tapestry as it advances from initial architecture into technical implementation and global collaboration.
"As AI is fast becoming part of the common infrastructure, there is a need for foundation models to be open so as to enable sovereignty and cultural diversity. As a key component of our information and knowledge infrastructure, AI should not be controlled by a handful of private entities through proprietary products. Some of the most important advances in science and technology have come from open science, open-source software, and open technology platforms at a broad scale. Project Tapestry is an ambitious effort to bring that model to AI — to create the conditions for open, distributed progress on systems of real capability." – Dr. Yann LeCun, Chairman of AMI Labs, Professor at NYU, and Chief Science Advisor to the AI Alliance
Frontier Open Models without Centralizing Data and Compute
Today, the development of the most capable AI models is increasingly concentrated within a small number of companies and regions. Open-weight models have expanded access, but core decisions about training data, model objectives, architecture, and evaluation typically remain concentrated within the institutions that originate them. At the same time, many sovereign AI model efforts face steep barriers in compute, funding, data access, and specialized talent.
Project Tapestry offers a more powerful alternative: a collaborative approach to AI model development in which participants can help build a shared open foundation without surrendering their data, strategic autonomy, or downstream control. Its long-term vision is to develop an open global model — a shared open source base foundation model that can draw on broader pools of expertise, compute, and domain knowledge than any single organization can typically assemble alone — while enabling participants to create sovereign derivative models tailored to their own societal, industrial, scientific, or mission-specific needs, and aligned to their own governance frameworks, languages, values, and priorities.
"Until now, many sovereign and sector-specific AI efforts have faced steep barriers in compute, data access, funding, and specialized talent," said Dr. Christopher Nguyen, Chief Architect of Project Tapestry, Board Member of the AI Alliance, and CEO & Co-Founder of Aitomatic. "Project Tapestry is designed to overcome that constraint through federated collaboration. The idea is simple but powerful: build a shared global base openly, then enable each participant to extend it in ways they fully own and control."
From Launch to Global Technical Mobilization
Over time, the Alliance expects Project Tapestry to foster a vibrant and enduring ecosystem of collaborative, sovereignty-preserving model and application development. The AI Alliance's 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization will serve as the community home for Project Tapestry. It will host and support the Tapestry platform and open source technical assets including models that the AI Alliance develops with the platform. Project Tapestry will be governed by a board of representatives from major contributing organizations globally.
The AI Alliance is convening a workshop in Paris on May 7-8, bringing together technical leaders from around the world to define Project Tapestry's architecture, roadmap and model development priorities. Additional announcements are expected over the coming months.
"The AI Alliance was founded on the principle that open innovation can produce AI that is more capable, more accountable, and more broadly beneficial," said Dr. Anthony Annunziata, Chairman of the AI Alliance and Director of AI Open Innovation at IBM. "Project Tapestry is an ambitious step toward making that principle real in infrastructure form: a path for the world to build the most advanced and capable AI collaboratively, but without giving up sovereignty."
Learn more: https://events.thealliance.ai/tapestry
About the AI Alliance
The AI Alliance is a global nonprofit research and technology organization dedicated to advancing open, safe, and responsible AI through innovation, collaboration, and advocacy. Operating through both a 501(c)(3) public-benefit organization and a 501(c)(6) industry association, the Alliance brings together more than 200 collaborating organizations across 29 countries spanning industry, academia, startups, research, and government.
The Alliance supports open initiatives across AI data, models, agents, safety, and governance. Its technical projects and community collaborations provide part of the foundation on which Project Tapestry is being developed.
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Turing Award winner Yann LeCun joins as Chief Science Advisor to the AI Alliance and Project Tapestry, a new open-source platform designed to enable globally federated development of frontier open models while preserving sovereignty, local control, and long-term independence.
NEW YORK, April 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the AI Alliance, a non-profit AI research and open-source technology coalition with more than 200 member organizations, launched Project Tapestry to empower open and sovereign AI development globally. Project Tapestry will build a new open-source platform to enable distributed, globally federated training of frontier open models.
With Project Tapestry, the AI Alliance aims to create a new path for advanced AI development, one in which institutions, industries, and nations can join together to contribute to build more capable open base models, while retaining control of their data and the ability to build on the base to produce sovereign derivative models aligned to their own priorities, industries, culture, laws, and values.
Alongside Project Tapestry, the AI Alliance announced that Yann LeCun, Turing Award laureate, Chairman of AMI Labs, and one of the most influential figures in modern artificial intelligence, will join as Chief Science Advisor to the AI Alliance. In that role, LeCun will help guide the scientific direction of the AI Alliance focusing on Project Tapestry as it advances from initial architecture into technical implementation and global collaboration.
"As AI is fast becoming part of the common infrastructure, there is a need for foundation models to be open so as to enable sovereignty and cultural diversity. As a key component of our information and knowledge infrastructure, AI should not be controlled by a handful of private entities through proprietary products. Some of the most important advances in science and technology have come from open science, open-source software, and open technology platforms at a broad scale. Project Tapestry is an ambitious effort to bring that model to AI — to create the conditions for open, distributed progress on systems of real capability." – Dr. Yann LeCun, Chairman of AMI Labs, Professor at NYU, and Chief Science Advisor to the AI Alliance
Frontier Open Models without Centralizing Data and Compute
Today, the development of the most capable AI models is increasingly concentrated within a small number of companies and regions. Open-weight models have expanded access, but core decisions about training data, model objectives, architecture, and evaluation typically remain concentrated within the institutions that originate them. At the same time, many sovereign AI model efforts face steep barriers in compute, funding, data access, and specialized talent.
Project Tapestry offers a more powerful alternative: a collaborative approach to AI model development in which participants can help build a shared open foundation without surrendering their data, strategic autonomy, or downstream control. Its long-term vision is to develop an open global model — a shared open source base foundation model that can draw on broader pools of expertise, compute, and domain knowledge than any single organization can typically assemble alone — while enabling participants to create sovereign derivative models tailored to their own societal, industrial, scientific, or mission-specific needs, and aligned to their own governance frameworks, languages, values, and priorities.
"Until now, many sovereign and sector-specific AI efforts have faced steep barriers in compute, data access, funding, and specialized talent," said Dr. Christopher Nguyen, Chief Architect of Project Tapestry, Board Member of the AI Alliance, and CEO & Co-Founder of Aitomatic. "Project Tapestry is designed to overcome that constraint through federated collaboration. The idea is simple but powerful: build a shared global base openly, then enable each participant to extend it in ways they fully own and control."
From Launch to Global Technical Mobilization
Over time, the Alliance expects Project Tapestry to foster a vibrant and enduring ecosystem of collaborative, sovereignty-preserving model and application development. The AI Alliance's 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization will serve as the community home for Project Tapestry. It will host and support the Tapestry platform and open source technical assets including models that the AI Alliance develops with the platform. Project Tapestry will be governed by a board of representatives from major contributing organizations globally.
The AI Alliance is convening a workshop in Paris on May 7-8, bringing together technical leaders from around the world to define Project Tapestry's architecture, roadmap and model development priorities. Additional announcements are expected over the coming months.
"The AI Alliance was founded on the principle that open innovation can produce AI that is more capable, more accountable, and more broadly beneficial," said Dr. Anthony Annunziata, Chairman of the AI Alliance and Director of AI Open Innovation at IBM. "Project Tapestry is an ambitious step toward making that principle real in infrastructure form: a path for the world to build the most advanced and capable AI collaboratively, but without giving up sovereignty."
Learn more: https://events.thealliance.ai/tapestry
About the AI Alliance
The AI Alliance is a global nonprofit research and technology organization dedicated to advancing open, safe, and responsible AI through innovation, collaboration, and advocacy. Operating through both a 501(c)(3) public-benefit organization and a 501(c)(6) industry association, the Alliance brings together more than 200 collaborating organizations across 29 countries spanning industry, academia, startups, research, and government.
The Alliance supports open initiatives across AI data, models, agents, safety, and governance. Its technical projects and community collaborations provide part of the foundation on which Project Tapestry is being developed.
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Photo - https://mma.prnasia.com/media2/2951256/AI_Alliance__Project_Tapestry_Architecture.jpg?p=medium600
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AI Alliance Launches Project Tapestry to Build a Collaborative Foundation for Open and Sovereign AI
AI Alliance Launches Project Tapestry to Build a Collaborative Foundation for Open and Sovereign AI
PARIS and NEW YORK and LONDON, April 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- AMTD Group Inc. ("AMTD Group"), AMTD IDEA Group (NYSE: AMTD; SGX: HKB), AMTD Digital Inc. (NYSE: HKD) and The Generation Essentials Group ("TGE", NYSE: TGE; LSE: TGE), a subsidiary of AMTD Digital Inc., are pleased to announce that Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur, Chairman of AMTD Group, AMTD IDEA Group (NYSE: AMTD; SGX: HKB), and The Generation Essentials Group ("TGE", NYSE: TGE; LSE: TGE), a subsidiary of AMTD Digital Inc., has been appointed as a member of the Global Strategic Advisory Board of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)).
On March 25, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)) launched its Global Strategic Advisory Board.
The Board comprises eight distinguished leaders from higher education institutions across seven countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, and China.
Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur serves as the representative from Canada.
The Global Strategic Advisory Board is chaired by Prof. Sir Jim McDonald, Former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Strathclyde.
Other members include Prof. Wei Shyy, Former President of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Prof. Jacques Biot, Former President of École Polytechnique; Prof. Ningsheng Xu, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Former President of Fudan University; Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, President of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Prof. Ulrich Rüdiger, Rector of RWTH Aachen University; and Prof. Dawn Freshwater, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland.
The Board will support HKUST(GZ) in strengthening its focus on cross-disciplinary education and cutting-edge research, while also promoting Guangzhou and the Greater Bay Area as a globally influential international education hub and world-class innovation center.
During the three-day inaugural meeting, Guangzhou Mayor Zhiyang Sun met with the Board members and expressed his strong support for HKUST(GZ)'s vision to make significant contributions to the Greater Bay Area and beyond.
Dr. Hamdullahpur's appointment underscores his global academic stature and extensive scholarly contributions, including holding several patents and publishing over 200 scientific and technical articles. It also highlights his strong track record in building global partnerships and fostering international connectivity and collaboration.
He currently serves as Chancellor of The International Business University and is a member of the International Advisory Board of King Abdulaziz University and the Strategic Advisory Board of Sorbonne University. He previously served as the Vice Chancellor and President of the University of Waterloo.
Over the course of his career, he has been widely recognized for his leadership in higher education. In 2022, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2019, he was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of Palmes Académiques by the Republic of France. He was recognized as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018 and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013. Further underscoring his strong ties with China and his contributions to Sino-foreign collaboration, Dr. Hamdullahpur is also a recipient of the Friendship Award, the People's Republic of China's highest honor for foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the country's economic and social progress.
Under the leadership of Dr. Hamdullahpur and Dr. Timothy Tong, we established the AMTD Charity Foundation to advance education and talent development. In partnership with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, we established the AMTD FinTech Centre of PolyU Faculty of Business, the first university-industry collaborated FinTech centre in Hong Kong, and subsequently launched Asia's first doctoral degree programme in FinTech. AMTD has also formed a long-term partnership with Xiaomi, Singapore Management University, and the National University of Singapore to establish the "Singapore Digital Finance Leadership Programme," and collaborated with the University of Waterloo to launch the "University of Waterloo–AMTD Innovation Hub" and the "AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship." In addition, AMTD is a founding shareholder of Charterhouse School Asia, affiliated with one of the top five private schools in the UK. Across these initiatives, we remain committed to youth development and continuing education, broadening access to quality educational opportunities, and advancing positive social inclusion.
About AMTD Group
AMTD Group is a conglomerate with a core business portfolio spanning across media and entertainment, education and training, and premium assets and hospitality sectors.
About AMTD IDEA Group
AMTD IDEA Group (NYSE: AMTD; SGX: HKB) represents a diversified institution and digital solutions group connecting companies and investors with global markets. Its comprehensive one-stop business services plus digital solutions platform addresses different clients' diverse and inter-connected business needs and digital requirements across all phases of their life cycles. AMTD IDEA Group is uniquely positioned as an active super connector between clients, business partners, investee companies, and investors, connecting the East and the West. For more information, please visit www.amtdinc.com or follow us on X (formerly known as "Twitter") at @AMTDGroup.
About AMTD Digital Inc.
AMTD Digital Inc. (NYSE: HKD) is a comprehensive digital solutions platform headquartered in France. Its one-stop digital solutions platform operates key business lines including digital media, content and marketing services, investments as well as hospitality and VIP services. For AMTD Digital's announcements, please visit https://ir.amtdigital.net/investor-news.
About The Generation Essentials Group
The Generation Essentials Group (NYSE: TGE; LSE: TGE), jointly established by AMTD Group, AMTD IDEA Group (NYSE: AMTD; SGX: HKB) and AMTD Digital Inc. (NYSE: HKD), is headquartered in France and focuses on global strategies and developments in multi-media, entertainment, and cultural affairs worldwide as well as hospitality and VIP services. TGE comprises L'Officiel, The Art Newspaper, movie and entertainment projects. Collectively, TGE is a diversified portfolio of media and entertainment businesses, and a global portfolio of premium properties. Also, TGE is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsor manager, with its first SPAC successfully raised and priced on December 18, 2025.
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Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur, Chairman of AMTD Group, Appointed to the Global Strategic Advisory Board of HKUST (GZ)
