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Qwen

Qwen
Qwen is a multipurpose artificial intelligence consumer app created by Alibaba as a personal AI assistant for professional and personal use, and powered by the Alibaba Cloud software. Its functionality includes research, image generation and slide generation. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud computing unit of Hangzhou-based Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.
A display promoting the Qwen Intelligence agentic solution is seen at Alibaba’s Apsara Conference on Thursday. Photo: Wency Chen
Alibaba

Alibaba unveils ‘pragmatic’ AI road map to drive monetisation as capex soars

Current investor sentiment has shifted from enthusiasm for AI catalysts to the need for tangible returns and infrastructure efficiency.

Artificial intelligence

Moonshot’s Kimi K3 lands on Amazon in key test for Chinese open-source AI income

Artificial intelligence

China is beating the US in consumer AI adoption, thanks to super apps: report

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Artificial intelligence

A ploy to entrench US lead? China pushes back on calls for slowdown in AI

Chinese researchers say a slowdown would protect established US incumbents while freezing latecomers out of the market.

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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei addresses the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, February 19, 2026. Photo: Reuters
US-China trade war

Anthropic claims Moonshot, DeepSeek secretly diverted user requests to Claude

AI giants accused of cloning American models by funnelling real Chinese user queries to them via network of intermediate platforms.

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Artificial intelligence

China rejects US AI model distillation allegations, warns of retaliation

The commerce ministry says distillation is ‘neutral’ and widely used by companies around the world, including American firms.

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Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s AI ‘employees’ can now work in ByteDance, Tencent apps

QoderWake tool now lets users create assistants that can function within office communication platforms from rivals, as well as Alibaba’s.

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A woman walks past an Alibaba Group sign at an office complex in Shenzhen, in southern China’s Guangdong province, on March 25, 2026. Photo: Getty Images
China-Africa relations

African businesses keep options open as Chinese AI gains ground

Lower costs, downloadable models and greater language flexibility are helping Chinese AI models gain ground across the continent.

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China technology

Opinion | Asia is reaching for the open road that Chinese AI offers

Countries seeking sovereign AI want to control their own AI capabilities rather than rent them from a foreign platform.

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Alibaba

Alibaba to issue US$10 billion in new shares for global AI push

The Chinese tech giant is going ‘full stack’, expanding beyond retail into chips, cloud and large language models as surging spending weighs on quarterly profits.

Tourists visit the Alibaba Group booth at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China, on July 17. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
United States

Opinion | America is arguing over the wrong AI obstacle

Sluggish adoption can’t be blamed on overregulation, and restricting access to US frontier models is no defence against open-source Chinese rivals.

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US President Donald Trump displaying a signed executive order related to his AI Action Plan at the “Winning the AI Race” summit in Washington, D.C. on July 23, 2025. Photo: Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

24 hours with Tencent’s WeChat AI agent: successes and stumbles

The new Xiaowei agent promises hands-free control across WeChat’s vast digital ecosystem. I set out to see whether it delivers.

Artificial intelligence

Back in the Harness: DeepSeek continues its pivot towards agentic AI

With the launch of Harness, China’s DeepSeek continues to build the foundational digital scaffolding for autonomous AI agents.

Alibaba

Alibaba adds commercial restrictions to open-weight Qwen3.8-Max AI model

In a strategy shift, Alibaba’s flagship Qwen3.8-Max model comes with terms for certain companies using it to generate revenue.

Alibaba’s decision to release Qwen3.8-Max’s weights is a shift from its strategy of keeping its most advanced Max models proprietary. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek’s flagship AI model update underwhelms – except in cybersecurity

Chinese AI start-up’s model impresses in niche areas like cybersecurity but leaves some developers disappointed in its overall capabilities.

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Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek quietly released an updated version of its latest flagship model, DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
Alibaba

From CXMT to Zhipu AI, Alibaba’s strategic investments are paying off

The company’s strategic shift to AI and chip investments is not only yielding significant returns, but also boosting its tech portfolio.

Artificial intelligence

Moonshot AI pushes China closer to US in frontier tech

An overwhelming rush to sign up for Moonshot’s Kimi K3 model underscores how China is rapidly gaining ground on the US in artificial intelligence.

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Alibaba

Alibaba previews Qwen3.8, claiming its strength trails only Anthropic’s Fable 5

Preview reflects the latest phase in China’s AI push, as domestic labs chase parity with US heavyweights.

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With 2.4 trillion parameters, Qwen3.8 is “one of the most powerful models available today”, according to Alibaba. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

Humanoids to Huawei: what to watch as Xi attends China’s top AI event

Gathering will showcase Beijing’s push to compete across the full AI stack, from models and chips to robots, consumer devices.

Artificial intelligence

AI | Chinese AI giants, start-ups ready for the agentic web era

With artificially intelligent agents set to become our interface with the digital world, Chinese tech platforms are embedding them and launching AI-native products.

Alibaba

Why Alibaba shares just scored their strongest gains in Hong Kong this year

UBS and Jefferies project the firm’s revenue to accelerate to 9% in June quarter, well above the 3% recorded in the previous quarter.

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The logo of Alibaba is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 6, 2023. Photo: TNS
China economy

Opinion | Are the US’ AI models better than China’s? That may be beside the point

Rather than fight US frontier AI control, China is thinning the margins of premium AI with cheap-enough, good-enough models for mass adoption.

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People try products at AI+ Power 2026, Hong Kong’s largest artificial intelligence expo and conference, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai on June 4. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Artificial intelligence

Meta’s new AI research chief says agents are next big real-world milestone

UC Berkeley’s RDI centre earlier this month introduced Agents’ Last Exam, a new benchmark that tests how well AI agents perform.

Artificial intelligence

Faster AI, lower costs: DSpark eases bottlenecks and chip strain, says DeepSeek

Start-up unveils speculative decoding framework that speeds up inference by up to 85 per cent amid China’s push to overcome US AI curbs.

Alibaba

Alibaba slashes Qwen AI model price during US working hours in fight for users

The aggressive price cut comes amid intense rivalry between US and Chinese artificial intelligence firms.

The Qwen and Alibaba logos. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba chip unit T-Head triples capital amid AI hardware bet

First injection in over three years comes as Alibaba works on full-stack AI infrastructure, from its Qwen models to chips to cloud services.

Alibaba has become more vocal about its chip unit this year and is reportedly working toward spinning it off with an initial public offering. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

China’s Alipay gets AI-agent overhaul to challenge rivals Tencent and ByteDance

Fintech giant is seen leveraging its billion-user base to launch a conversational interface that coordinates 10,000 services, with safeguards.

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Artificial intelligence

Alibaba forges Token Foundry as it hammers AI ambitions into shape

Alibaba consolidates key AI teams under CEO Eddie Wu and appoints Qwen leader Zhou Jingren as chief scientist.

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