Apple Intelligence clears China regulator with Alibaba's Qwen deal

China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, has approved Apple’s AI services for the country, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The approval follows a deal to integrate Alibaba’s Qwen AI model into Apple’s operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS, bringing Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker’s generative AI offering, to Chinese users.

The agreement was rumored to be in the works last year, and it marks an important step for Apple’s AI ambitions in a key market. Apple’s sales in Greater China rose 28% to $20.5 billion in the second quarter, and the company recently regained the No. 2 position in China’s smartphone market after a shopping festival offered discounts on the iPhone lineup.

Before working with Alibaba, Apple reportedly explored a deal with Baidu but ran into problems adapting its models for Chinese customers. It also explored integrations with DeepSeek and with models from ByteDance, according to reports. That extended search delayed the arrival of Apple Intelligence, which debuted in 2024, to the Chinese market.

Alibaba confirmed the deal to CNBC in a statement, saying Qwen would be “integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences,” though it did not provide a timeframe. The company said the integration would involve AI capabilities including text and image understanding and generation. U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba rose 4% in pre-market trading on news of the deal and were up by over 6% as of the time of publication.

Why it matters

The approval ends more than a year of Apple searching for a Chinese AI partner and puts Qwen at the center of its product line there, in a market where Apple’s sales are rebounding.