Is the Apple Alibaba deal the start of something big, or simply a short-term solution?
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Published in
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5 min read
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Feb 15, 2025
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Sometimes there’s an event in the technology industry that seems relatively minor at the time, but ends up having huge repercussions. One such case might turn out to be Apple’s decision to include Qwen, Alibaba’s state-of-the-art generative artificial AI, in its iPhones sold in China.
Apple doesn’t make a move without thinking it through: it has been adapting to China’s complex and often opaque regulations for years. However, taking the step of adding an Alibaba AI algorithm to its terminals is a milestone, at the technological, geopolitical and cultural levels. Apple is faced with the dilemma of remaining relevant (and tolerated) in the largest smartphone market on the planet, and to do so it cannot and does not want to miss the AI train. Including Qwen is a short- to medium-term pragmatic response the Chinese company is, as Alibaba’s chairman Joseph Tsai says, absolutely delighted with:
“They talked to a number of companies in China. In the end they chose to do business with us. They want to use our AI to power their phones. We feel extremely honored to do business with a great company like Apple.”
