Exclusive | Alibaba pairs with Apple to develop AI features for China iPhones: sources

China’s Alibaba Group Holding has entered a partnership with US consumer electronics giant Apple to develop AI features for iPhones in China in a sign of the growing recognition of Alibaba’s capabilities on the fast-moving AI front, sources familiar with the matter said.

According to people close to the deal, Apple has decided to work with Alibaba as it sees the strength of the Chinese company’s Qwen AI model and its “cutting edge” capabilities.

The news was first reported by US tech industry publication The Information. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The deal comes as Apple is seeking to secure a local AI partner to boost sales of iPhones on the mainland, where the US company is facing a challenge in the world’s largest smartphone market because its Apple Intelligence capability is unavailable to iPhone users.

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China’s Alibaba releases new AI model, said to outperform competitors Deepseek and OpenAI’s GPT-4o

China’s Alibaba releases new AI model, said to outperform competitors Deepseek and OpenAI’s GPT-4o

Apple is scheduled to host its China developer conference in Shanghai on March 25, which has fanned speculation that the Apple Intelligence could go online by then.