Alibaba Shares Rise After Qwen Joins Apple Intelligence

Alibaba’s US-listed shares rose more than 6% after Apple confirmed it will integrate Alibaba’s Qwen artificial intelligence model into Apple Intelligence for users in China. Apple’s shares gained about 1.8% and Baidu’s US-listed stock climbed roughly 2.8% after Baidu confirmed a collaboration on local AI features.

The integration follows approval from China’s cyberspace regulator for Apple Intelligence to operate on iPhones in China. China requires large language models and generative AI services to obtain regulatory approval before public deployment, and the approval removed a key obstacle that had delayed Apple’s local AI launch since the platform was introduced in 2024.

Alibaba issued a statement: “Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences within iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for users in China.” The company added that Qwen will provide capabilities including text generation, image generation and image understanding across Apple devices without requiring users to switch between separate applications.

Baidu confirmed it is working with Apple on Apple Intelligence features for the Chinese market and will contribute to localized services for iPhone users in China.

In the latest round of approvals, Apple Intelligence and Samsung’s Galaxy AI were the only foreign AI services authorized. Domestic smartphone makers Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE also received approvals, with ByteDance named as ZTE’s AI partner.

The approvals followed several months of discussions between Apple and Chinese authorities over regulatory and commercial issues. Companies working with Apple used locally approved models and infrastructure to meet China’s rules for generative AI.

Separately, a Caltech spinout called PrismML released compressed versions of the open-source Qwen model, shrinking its size from about 54 GB to under 4 GB. Those compressed models make it possible to run a full 27-billion-parameter Qwen instance on iPhone 15 and newer devices, which supports on-device AI processing.

The announcement came amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of cross-border AI activity. Alibaba recently limited employee access to certain foreign AI models, and reports indicate a planned $2 billion acquisition of a Chinese AI startup by a U.S. company was unwound after regulatory pushback.

Regulatory approval allows Chinese iPhone users to access Apple’s generative features using models hosted or provided by domestic AI companies. Investors reacted to the confirmations with immediate share gains for Alibaba and Baidu.