Alibaba Group Holding (BABA, Financials), the Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing company, climbed in Hong Kong trading after introducing a preview version of its latest Qwen 3.8 Max artificial intelligence model.
Alibaba said the new model ranks just behind Anthropic's Fable 5 in capability and is now available to developers through its Qoder platform and other coding tools. The release follows a string of AI launches in China as companies compete to attract developers and enterprise customers.
The announcement came only days after Moonshot AI introduced its Kimi K3 model, while Tencent-backed MiniMax is also preparing an upgraded system. The rapid pace of releases highlights how quickly China's AI market is evolving, particularly in software development and coding applications.
The competition is beginning to influence investor sentiment. Alibaba shares rose as much as 5.4%, making the stock one of the strongest performers on the Hang Seng Index, while shares of some AI rivals moved lower as investors reassessed the competitive landscape.
Goldman Sachs said the market is entering a period of intense competition among high-end coding models and continues to favor Alibaba among cloud providers, citing rising investment in AI infrastructure.
Attention now turns to whether Alibaba can convert its latest AI advances into broader cloud adoption and stronger revenue growth.