Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group has partnered with Apple to integrate its Qwen artificial intelligence model into Apple Intelligence for users in China, according to a report published Saturday by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
The integration is expected to become available for testing in the latest iOS developer beta from November 4, ahead of a wider rollout with the official release of iOS 27.3 in December, Alibaba said.
Under the partnership, Qwen’s AI capabilities will be incorporated into several Apple features, including Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, allowing users to access AI-powered assistance across their devices.
Alibaba said users would have control over whether to activate the integration and what information they choose to share. The company also stated that user requests and AI-generated responses would not be used to train its artificial intelligence models.
The service will be available on compatible iPhones, provided both the device location and Apple Account region are set to China.
Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu welcomed the collaboration, saying it would introduce new AI-powered services to Chinese consumers.
Wang Xiaojie, an artificial intelligence expert at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, described the agreement as a significant development for China’s technology industry.
According to Wang, the partnership marks the first time a major international consumer hardware manufacturer has adopted a Chinese large language model as its primary system-level AI foundation in the Chinese market.
The collaboration represents an important expansion of Alibaba’s Qwen technology into consumer devices and highlights the growing role of Chinese-developed AI models in the global technology industry.