HANGZHOU, November 1, 2026: Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group has announced a partnership with Apple to integrate its Qwen artificial intelligence model into Apple Intelligence, bringing AI-powered features to iPhone users in China.
The integration will become available for testing in Apple’s latest iOS developer beta on November 4, ahead of a wider rollout with the official release of iOS 27.3 in December, according to Alibaba.
The agreement marks a significant development in China’s artificial intelligence industry, allowing a domestically developed large language model to power AI features within Apple’s operating system.
Under the partnership, Qwen will support several Apple Intelligence functions, including Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. Users will be able to access AI-powered text generation, image understanding and other intelligent features directly through their iPhones.
Alibaba said the integration would be optional, allowing users to decide whether to activate Qwen-powered services and control what information they share.
The company also stated that user requests and AI-generated responses would not be used to train its models.
The new features will be available to users who purchase Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhones in China. Existing users may also qualify if both their device location and Apple Account country or region are set to China.
Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu said the partnership would combine Qwen’s AI capabilities with Apple’s ecosystem to introduce new intelligent services for Chinese consumers.
The collaboration is particularly significant as Apple expands its AI services in China, where regulatory requirements and the availability of locally developed AI models play an important role in technology deployment.
Wang Xiaojie, an artificial intelligence expert at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, described the agreement as a major milestone for China’s AI industry.
According to Wang, it represents the first time a leading global consumer hardware manufacturer has adopted a Chinese large language model as the primary system-level AI foundation for its products in the Chinese market.
He said the development demonstrated the growing commercial potential of China’s domestically developed AI models.
Apple first introduced Apple Intelligence during its Worldwide Developers Conference in 2024 as part of its broader strategy to integrate generative AI into its devices and software.
The partnership follows regulatory developments in China, where the country’s cyberspace authority completed the filing of seven on-device generative AI services for smartphones in July, including Apple Intelligence.
With the Qwen integration scheduled for December, the agreement is expected to strengthen Alibaba’s position in China’s AI market while supporting Apple’s efforts to expand its intelligent services for Chinese iPhone users.