On July 15, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced that "Apple Intelligence" had officially passed the generative AI service filing. Alibaba subsequently confirmed that Qwen would be integrated as the AI capability powering Apple Intelligence, providing intelligent experiences for Chinese users across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS.
This marks a critical step for Apple's AI capabilities to launch in the Chinese market. Users will be able to directly experience Qwen's text and image understanding, content generation, and other capabilities on Apple devices without switching between apps. Alibaba simultaneously released the next-generation real-time voice interaction model Qwen-Audio-3.0-Realtime, further strengthening its multimodal AI portfolio.
The capital markets reacted swiftly. Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares rose over 7% in pre-market trading, while its Hong Kong-listed shares gained over 5%, hitting a more than one-month high. Market observers believe the successful launch of Apple Intelligence in China marks a crucial step for Apple's domestic AI ecosystem, while also potentially enhancing Alibaba's large model influence and commercial value.
Besides "Apple Intelligence," other on-device AI services filed in the same batch include Huawei's Xiaoyi, vivo's BlueLM, Xiaomi's HyperAI, and Nubia's Doubao large model. The "filing era" for on-device AI has officially begun, with domestic large models becoming a "standard" feature for mainstream smartphone manufacturers.
Editor's Note: Qwen's integration into Apple Intelligence is a landmark event for the "strongest network" of Chinese large models. Previously, Qwen, alongside MiniMax, Zhipu AI, and other domestic models, ranked among the top global downloads. Entering Apple's ecosystem signifies that the capabilities of Chinese large models have received technical validation from the world's most stringent hardware manufacturer. For Alibaba, this means Tongyi Qwen will evolve from an "API service provider" to a "system-level AI capability provider." Users can access it without downloading an app, fundamentally transforming reach and user engagement.