Alibaba Group NYSE:BABA shares rose about 5% on Wednesday after China's cyberspace regulator approved Apple (AAPL) Intelligence for use on iPhones in the country, paving the way for Alibaba's AI technology to be integrated into the service.
Alibaba said its Qwen artificial intelligence model will power parts of Apple Intelligence across iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS for users in China. The company said the integration will enable users to access Qwen's text and image generation capabilities directly within Apple's software ecosystem.
Reuters reported that Apple Intelligence in China will also incorporate artificial intelligence capabilities from Baidu (BIDU), citing a source familiar with the matter. China's Cyberspace Administration did not specify when the AI features will become available on iPhones sold in the country.
Alibaba said the approval marks an important step for bringing Apple Intelligence to mainland China, where the service had not previously been available.