Alibaba puts its Qwen AI model in Apple Intelligence in China
From December, users in China get Qwen in Siri, and each user selects if it is on.
Alibaba, a Chinese technology company, announced on 31 October 2026 that it will work with Apple. Qwen, the AI model of Alibaba, goes into Apple Intelligence, the AI system of Apple, for users in China. Testing starts on 4 November in the iOS developer beta. The full release is in iOS 27.3 in December. The news gives no test results and no price.
How it works
Qwen works in 3 Apple tools: Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. Users in China can use it for text, images and content. Each user selects if it is on and which data to share.
The proof
The news gives no test results. Alibaba says it will not use user inputs or answers to train its model. In July, the Chinese cyberspace authority registered 7 on-device AI services. Apple Intelligence is one of them.
What is not known
Wang Xiaojie, an AI expert at a Beijing university, says this is a first. A top company that makes hardware for consumers uses a Chinese large model as its primary system AI in China. The news gives no deal terms and no word from Apple.
Insight: China controls the gate in and the gate out for AI
On 16 October 2026, China put out a draft that puts some model weights in export licenses, but API access is free. Qwen in Apple Intelligence is a service for users in China, with a July registration. This looks like a toll gate: a company from a different country seems to need a Chinese model to get users. Leaders who sell AI in China must prepare for a local model partner.
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