Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker's generative AI suite, has received regulatory approval for launch in China. The Cyberspace Administration of China greenlit the services on Wednesday, following a deal to integrate Alibaba's Qwen AI model into Apple's operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS.
Approval and Partnership
The partnership, which had been rumored since last year, is a critical step for Apple's AI ambitions in its second-largest market. Apple's Greater China sales jumped 28% to $20.5 billion in the second quarter, and the company recently reclaimed the No. 2 spot in China's smartphone market after a shopping festival boosted iPhone sales.
Before teaming up with Alibaba, Apple explored collaborations with Baidu, DeepSeek, and ByteDance but faced challenges adapting models for Chinese users. Those delays pushed back the launch of Apple Intelligence features, which debuted in 2024 in other regions.
Alibaba Confirms Integration
Alibaba confirmed the deal to CNBC, stating that Qwen would be "integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences" for text and image understanding and generation, though no specific timeline was provided. U.S. shares of Alibaba rose 4% in pre-market trading on the news and were up over 6% at the time of publication.