Ant Group Helps to Accelerate Low Carbon Innovation by Granting Free Patent Access to Its Green Computing Technologies

Ant Group today announced that it has joined the Low Carbon Patent Pledge and made certain green computing patents available for free to low carbon innovators around the world. Ant Group joins other global leaders in low-carbon innovation, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Microsoft and Meta, in making these technologies more accessible to address climate change.

"The fight against climate change needs innovative solutions. At Ant Group, we have always leveraged our technology for social good," said Benjamin Bai, Vice President and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of Ant Group. "By providing our green patents to the increasing pool of free patents pledged by other companies, we hope to facilitate more carbon reduction innovations that will help address the global challenge of climate change."

Ant Group will start by granting free access to seven green computing patents that improve the efficiency and utilization rates of data servers, with additional patents to be released at a later stage.

Green technologies played a key role in supporting Ant Group's achievement to reach carbon neutrality in its operations in 2021. This is one of the core commitments the Company made as part of its pledge to reach net zero in carbon emissions by 2030.

Since 2019, Ant Group has been adopting and applying green computing technologies to its operations, including online-offline hybrid deployment, cloud-native time-shared scheduling, AI-based auto scaling and OceanBase enterprise-level distributed relational database. As a result, the Company more than doubled the utilization rates of data servers in three years. In 2021, green computing technologies contributed to about 82% of all carbon emissions reduced along the Company's value chain.

In February 2022, Ant Group was recognized as a Top 100 Global Innovatortm 2022 by Clarivatetm. This prestigious annual list identifies global companies and institutions that contribute new ideas, solve problems and create new economic value.

The Low Carbon Patent Pledge was launched on Earth Day 2021 by HPE, Microsoft and Meta to promote low carbon technologies and foster collaborative innovation.

About Ant Group

Ant Group aims to create the infrastructure and platform to support the digital transformation of the service industry. It strives to enable all consumers and small and micro businesses to have equal access to financial and other services that are inclusive, green and sustainable.

For more information, please visit our website at www.antgroup.com or follow us on Twitter @AntGroup.