TL;DRChina approved Alibaba’s Qwen to power Apple Intelligence across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS. PrismML compressed the model to run on an iPhone 15.
Alibaba confirmed on Wednesday that its Qwen AI model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for users in China. “Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences,” an Alibaba spokesperson told CNBC. China’s Cyberspace Administration included Apple AI services on a list of approved providers alongside products from Huawei and other domestic companies.
Alibaba’s US-listed shares rose 3.7% on the news. The approval ends a long regulatory process that began when Apple first announced its AI suite in 2024. Apple Intelligence briefly appeared on Chinese iPhones without approval in March, exposing the company to regulatory risk before the features were pulled. The deal with Alibaba was struck in February 2025, but Beijing’s content filtering requirements and security evaluation process delayed the rollout for over a year.
The integration gives Chinese users access to Qwen’s text and image understanding and generation capabilities without switching between tools. It arrives as the US-China technology rivalry intensifies. Alibaba recently banned employees from using Anthropic’s Claude, US lawmakers are considering how to curb Chinese AI model adoption by American companies, and Meta was reportedly forced to dismantle its $2 billion acquisition of Chinese company Manus after Beijing ordered the deal unwound.
