https://www.scmp.com/rss/521292/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese companies including Alibaba Cloud and Zhipu AI have opted not to open-source some of their latest artificial intelligence models as they look to capture the full value of their usage through official revenue generating channels. While none of the companies have said that they are moving away from their open-source strategies, the development reflects an industry trend where the most powerful models are growing in size, making them increasingly difficult to host on local hardware. This... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348844/chinese-ai-giants-pivot-toward-proprietary-models-drive-revenue-performance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348844/chinese-ai-giants-pivot-toward-proprietary-models-drive-revenue-performance?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:07:42 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese tech giants Xiaomi and Alibaba Group Holding have launched spring recruitment drives amid fierce competition for the talent driving the global artificial intelligence boom. The campaigns come as the smartphone and e-commerce giants, respectively, look to increasingly position themselves as AI-first firms, amid growing commercial pressures in their traditional businesses. In a Weibo post on Monday, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said the company’s global recruitment campaign would target... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348434/xiaomi-alibaba-ramp-ai-recruitment-amid-global-talent-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348434/xiaomi-alibaba-ramp-ai-recruitment-amid-global-talent-war?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:00:14 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Alibaba Group Holding is set to launch a new service that provides AI agents for millions of merchants on its Taobao and Tmall platforms, as the tech giant capitalises on the recent frenzy fuelled by OpenClaw to secure its lead in e-commerce. The new feature, slated for release by the end of March, will provide agentic AI services based on its merchant tool Business Advisor, aiming to give them a 24/7 autonomous “digital workforce” that can automate operation processes including offering... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348237/alibaba-deploy-ai-digital-workforce-millions-merchants-taobao-tmall?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348237/alibaba-deploy-ai-digital-workforce-millions-merchants-taobao-tmall?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Mar 2026 13:00:29 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow The organisers of a leading artificial intelligence conference have apologised after a new policy that appeared to bar US-sanctioned entities from participating sparked a backlash in China, saying the ban was more limited than initially indicated. The apology came after several major Chinese professional bodies urged domestic researchers to boycott the event, amid concerns that prominent tech groups such as Huawei Technologies would be excluded. In a statement on Friday, the Conference on Neural... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3348199/top-us-ai-conference-apologises-after-sanctions-policy-sparks-backlash-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3348199/top-us-ai-conference-apologises-after-sanctions-policy-sparks-backlash-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:34:14 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese computer scientists and researchers have been urged to boycott a major artificial intelligence conference after its organisers barred submissions from US-sanctioned institutions, including leading Chinese tech groups such as Huawei Technologies. The move by the China Computer Federation (CCF) is the latest flashpoint in deepening US-China tensions over AI, a fast-evolving field with far-reaching economic, social and military implications. The influential professional body said on... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3348006/ai-rift-widens-china-urges-boycott-top-us-conference-over-sanctions-ban?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3348006/ai-rift-widens-china-urges-boycott-top-us-conference-over-sanctions-ban?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:00:12 +0000 Lucy Quaggin Lucy Quaggin China’s strategy of promoting open artificial intelligence (AI) models and leveraging manufacturing dominance is “mutually reinforcing”, forming a feedback loop that could challenge US dominance in AI, according to a new report by a US congressional advisory body. “It is the intersection of these two loops – one digital, one physical – that gives China’s open strategy its compounding force and poses the most serious long-term challenge to US AI leadership,” the United States-China Economic and... https://www.scmp.com/news/us/diplomacy/article/3347645/us-panel-credits-chinas-ai-edge-open-source-models-manufacturing-dominance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/us/diplomacy/article/3347645/us-panel-credits-chinas-ai-edge-open-source-models-manufacturing-dominance?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Mar 2026 22:34:03 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding on Thursday said it aimed to generate US$100 billion in annual external revenue from its combined cloud and AI businesses within five years after disclosing for the first time the production progress of its T-Head chip unit, even as it missed its quarterly earnings estimates. “Over the past three months, token consumption on the Model Studio platform has grown by six times,” said CEO Eddie Wu Yongming on the earnings call, adding that model-as-a-service offerings would... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3347177/alibaba-discloses-gpu-production-first-time-quarterly-profit-misses-estimates?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3347177/alibaba-discloses-gpu-production-first-time-quarterly-profit-misses-estimates?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Mar 2026 10:39:03 +0000 Xinyi Wu,Wency Chen,Coco Feng Xinyi Wu,Wency Chen,Coco Feng The cloud-computing units of Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu are raising prices for certain services by as much as 34 per cent, following similar moves by their American peers earlier this year as artificial intelligence demand and infrastructure costs rise. Starting April 18, Alibaba Cloud’s services running on its AI chips – such as the T-Head Zhengwu 810E unveiled in late January – would cost between 5 and 34 per cent more, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The price of its Cloud... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3347030/alibaba-and-baidu-lift-cloud-prices-34-amid-ai-demand-surge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3347030/alibaba-and-baidu-lift-cloud-prices-34-amid-ai-demand-surge?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:30:08 +0000 Iris Deng,Wency Chen Iris Deng,Wency Chen Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding are set to report quarterly earnings this week, against a backdrop of an artificial intelligence boom that is reshaping the global economy and fuelling a frenzy in China around open-source AI agents such as OpenClaw. The South China Morning Post examines market expectations for their results and the key themes investors will be watching. What are the expectations for top line and bottom line performances? Shenzhen-based Tencent, operator of China’s... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3346920/tencent-and-alibaba-quarterly-earnings-preview-key-things-watch?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3346920/tencent-and-alibaba-quarterly-earnings-preview-key-things-watch?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Mar 2026 01:00:15 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding has reshuffled its artificial intelligence operations, creating a new top level business group and placing CEO Eddie Wu Yongming in charge as the AI and e-commerce powerhouse accelerates its push into the emerging token economy. The company said on Monday it had established the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) Business Group, which brings all its core AI teams and products together under one umbrella. This includes Tongyi Laboratory – the developer of Alibaba’s Qwen series of... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3346789/alibaba-reshuffles-ai-units-new-token-hub-group-led-ceo-eddie-wu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3346789/alibaba-reshuffles-ai-units-new-token-hub-group-led-ceo-eddie-wu?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:19:03 +0000 Wency Chen,Zhang Tong Wency Chen,Zhang Tong China is counting on artificial intelligence (AI) to help the 450 million people living in rural areas left behind by the nation’s economic boom. Farmers are already benefiting from the technology, using AI offerings such as DeepSeek or ByteDance’s Doubao for help with issues like pig rearing, pest control and government subsidies. The State Council’s “No 1 document” of 2026, extended a push for the “digital upgrading” of farming, with an emphasis on the greater integration of AI, drones, robots... https://www.scmp.com/plus/tech/tech-trends/article/3346713/ai-narrow-chinas-rural-urban-economic-divide?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/tech/tech-trends/article/3346713/ai-narrow-chinas-rural-urban-economic-divide?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2026 07:00:11 +0000 Coco Feng Coco Feng Chinese technology firms, including internet giants Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding and ByteDance, are offering easy or inexpensive access to OpenClaw, the popular open-source AI agent software amid a “lobster fever” in the country. Tencent on Tuesday officially launched QClaw, an artificial intelligence assistant built on OpenClaw that can connect to the company’s super app WeChat. After download and installation on a computer that takes about three minutes, users can remotely control... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3346090/chinese-tech-giants-offer-cheap-easy-access-openclaw-amid-lobster-fever?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3346090/chinese-tech-giants-offer-cheap-easy-access-openclaw-amid-lobster-fever?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:00:07 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Beijing is planning “moderately proactive” technology infrastructure expansion covering artificial intelligence (AI), telecommunications and space internet, while emphasising strength in coordinating green energy planning in tandem with computing initiatives to solidify its advantage in infrastructure amid the AI race with the US. The infrastructure buildout plan forms a core pillar of the nation’s draft 15th five-year plan, released last week during the legislative “two sessions” meeting and... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3346055/china-lays-out-its-blueprint-ai-space-internet-and-green-energy-tech-race-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3346055/china-lays-out-its-blueprint-ai-space-internet-and-green-energy-tech-race-us?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:59:21 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding has recruited a research scientist from Google DeepMind to bolster development efforts for its Qwen artificial intelligence models, in an internal restructuring that has seen the departure of previous technical lead Lin Junyang. While no successor to Lin was announced, former Google senior staff research scientist Zhou Hao was joining Alibaba as head of post-training research, replacing Yu Bowen, who also departed this week, two sources said. Zhou, who holds a PhD from the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345471/alibaba-recruits-google-deepmind-contributor-join-qwen-ai-team-sources-say?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345471/alibaba-recruits-google-deepmind-contributor-join-qwen-ai-team-sources-say?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:36:39 +0000 Iris Deng Iris Deng Tencent Holdings plans to expand its cloud-computing presence in Europe with new data centres in Germany, as the Chinese tech giant rides on the rising demand for artificial intelligence services globally. The Shenzhen-based company will open a new availability zone – a cluster of physically independent data centres – in the second quarter this year in Frankfurt, adding to the existing two in Germany, Tencent’s cloud-computing unit announced on Monday at MWC Barcelona. The move aimed to meet the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3345069/tencent-expands-cloud-computing-presence-europe-new-data-centres-germany?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3345069/tencent-expands-cloud-computing-presence-europe-new-data-centres-germany?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Mar 2026 09:00:09 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Semiconductor designer Moore Threads Technology has achieved full-stack compatibility between its flagship MTT S5000 graphics processing unit (GPU) and Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen3.5-series artificial intelligence models, as China’s tech self-reliance efforts gather pace. Beijing-based Moore Threads, founded by former Nvidia executive James Zhang Jianzhong, on Thursday said the firm’s flagship AI chip was now compatible with the three new models under the latest Qwen series – Qwen3.5-35B-A3B,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344877/moore-threads-flagship-ai-chip-compatible-alibaba-models-tech-self-reliance-push?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344877/moore-threads-flagship-ai-chip-compatible-alibaba-models-tech-self-reliance-push?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:26:06 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese open-source artificial intelligence models, led by those from MiniMax AI and Moonshot AI, have topped global token usage, ending a year of market dominance for US developers, according to data from OpenRouter. Online AI hosting platform OpenRouter’s latest ranking reflected the increased international demand for Chinese open-source models on its site following a series of new releases. Launched around two weeks ago, the M2.5 from Shanghai-based MiniMax emerged as the most popular AI... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344587/chinas-minimax-moonshot-top-ai-token-use-ranking-ending-year-us-dominance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344587/chinas-minimax-moonshot-top-ai-token-use-ranking-ending-year-us-dominance?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Feb 2026 11:30:07 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese analysts and investors have expressed scepticism about a viral report by a small US research outfit that triggered a major sell-off on Wall Street, saying China could be largely immune to major artificial intelligence disruption, given the low level of digital penetration in the country’s traditional institutions. Citrini Research’s report, published on Sunday, included references to the impact of China’s AI advances. The translated version of the report was widely circulated in Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344476/chinese-investors-and-analysts-shrug-ai-fears-after-citrini-report-sparks-us-sell?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344476/chinese-investors-and-analysts-shrug-ai-fears-after-citrini-report-sparks-us-sell?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:15:07 +0000 Coco Feng Coco Feng Major Chinese technology companies, including ByteDance and Baidu, are aggressively expanding their US-based research and development teams, targeting high-level artificial intelligence and semiconductor recruits in key American tech hubs. The overseas hiring spree underscores these “big tech” firms’ growing ambitions to build up their skilled workforce in AI systems development and semiconductor design amid increased competition in their home market. Social media giant ByteDance, the parent... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3344212/chinas-tech-giants-pursue-ai-semiconductor-talent-us-competition-intensifies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3344212/chinas-tech-giants-pursue-ai-semiconductor-talent-us-competition-intensifies?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Feb 2026 13:00:09 +0000 Lucy Quaggin Lucy Quaggin They are young, intensely competitive, and unapologetic about 80-hour work weeks. Welcome to the United States’ new generation of tech founders. Gen Z’s start-up class is reframing “millennial hustle culture” by shifting from side gigs and personal branding to a more rigid office grind, while looking to China for inspiration. It’s for this reason that US artificial intelligence start-ups are openly embracing 996, the controversial 9am to 9pm, six-day-a-week schedule popularised by Chinese tech... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3344052/996-goes-west-us-ai-start-ups-adopt-china-techs-controversial-work-schedule-get-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3344052/996-goes-west-us-ai-start-ups-adopt-china-techs-controversial-work-schedule-get-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Cloud has unveiled its next-generation open artificial intelligence model, Qwen-3.5, in a move set to have major implications for the global AI race between China and the US. The much-anticipated release, timed on the eve of the Lunar New Year, capped a frenetic week in which nearly every major Chinese AI developer rolled out new flagship models. The two new 3.5-series models were made available on Alibaba’s cloud platform Model Studio on Monday afternoon. The new Qwen-3.5-Open-Source... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343738/alibaba-unveils-qwen-35-sharpening-global-race-spread-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343738/alibaba-unveils-qwen-35-sharpening-global-race-spread-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Feb 2026 09:19:44 +0000 Wency Chen,Vincent Chow Wency Chen,Vincent Chow China’s leading humanoid robotics companies dominated the opening of this year’s Spring Festival Gala, the annual variety spectacle staged by state broadcaster CCTV that offers a rare nationwide marketing platform akin to the US Super Bowl, highlighting the central role of the industry in Beijing’s industrial policy. Four robotics firms – Hangzhou-based Unitree, Wuxi-based Magiclab, Beijing-based Galbot and Noetix – had announced partnerships with this year’s gala in deals said to be valued at... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343634/chinas-tech-companies-vie-attention-cctvs-festival-gala-years-biggest-stage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343634/chinas-tech-companies-vie-attention-cctvs-festival-gala-years-biggest-stage?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Feb 2026 22:00:15 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese consumers placed over 120 million orders on Alibaba Cloud’s flagship artificial intelligence app Qwen within six days, signalling growing acceptance of AI-powered shopping as the company joined other mainland Chinese tech giants in a multibillion-yuan holiday campaign. Nearly half the orders came from residents in counties and hinterland areas, with around 1.56 million people aged 60 and above making their first online purchases through Qwen, according to a statement on Thursday from... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343289/alibabas-qwen-tops-120-million-orders-6-days-amid-chinas-ai-shopping-battle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343289/alibabas-qwen-tops-120-million-orders-6-days-amid-chinas-ai-shopping-battle?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:02:39 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow The biggest threat to middle powers in the artificial intelligence era is “digital colonisation” from expensive and proprietary AI stacks, an Indonesian telecoms executive has said, adding that China’s open-source sales pitch offers better protection for local sovereignty. The emphasis on localisation and digital sovereignty comes as major Chinese AI cloud providers look to compete with US rivals in fast-growing Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia. “The world is moving out of proprietary... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343091/indonesia-telco-chief-warns-digital-colonisation-backs-chinas-open-source-ai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343091/indonesia-telco-chief-warns-digital-colonisation-backs-chinas-open-source-ai?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Feb 2026 15:00:09 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang TikTok parent ByteDance has unveiled its latest generative artificial intelligence image model that it says undercuts the popular Nano Banana image editor from Alphabet’s Google, a fresh development that comes as China and the US intensify their AI competition. ByteDance’s new image model faced immediate competition from Alibaba Cloud, which also released its latest image-generation model, Qwen-Image-2.0, on Tuesday. Chinese short-video giant ByteDance said its Seedream 5.0 image model ships... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343082/chinas-bytedance-alibaba-unveil-ai-image-tools-rival-googles-popular-nano-banana?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343082/chinas-bytedance-alibaba-unveil-ai-image-tools-rival-googles-popular-nano-banana?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:00:09 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow China’s AI sector is bracing for a monumental week, with a flurry of new models – including a potent “stealth” contender – emerging as domestic tech giants prepare to unveil their flagship products. The race to release new models ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday underscores the intense global competition between frontier companies for users’ attention amid a rapid acceleration of AI progress at the start of 2026, following high-profile releases from US heavyweights Anthropic and OpenAI. On... https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3342951/chinas-ai-arms-race-sees-sector-brace-major-flagship-model-launch-week?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3342951/chinas-ai-arms-race-sees-sector-brace-major-flagship-model-launch-week?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:02:58 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Hours after Alibaba Group Holding began offering freebies including bubble tea through its artificial intelligence app Qwen on Friday, a surge in downloads pushed the chatbot past Tencent Holdings’ Yuanbao to the top of China’s Apple App Store, climbing from 10th place a day earlier. More than 10 million free orders – worth 250 million yuan (US$36 million) – were placed within nine hours using vouchers capped at 25 yuan through Qwen, its team said on its official Weibo account. The surge in... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342702/alibabas-bubble-tea-giveaway-pushes-qwen-past-tencents-yuanbao-top-china-app-store?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342702/alibabas-bubble-tea-giveaway-pushes-qwen-past-tencents-yuanbao-top-china-app-store?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:35:13 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and artificial intelligence arm of Alibaba Group Holding, has unveiled a suite of AI-powered tools for the Milano Cortina Winter Games, marking the first time a large language model (LLM) will be embedded into the Olympics’ digital infrastructure. The partnership between Alibaba Cloud, Olympic Broadcasting Services and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was announced on Wednesday. Alibaba’s Qwen model will power “Olympic AI Assistants”, a digital system... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3342418/chatbots-replays-alibaba-rolls-out-ai-suite-2026-winter-olympics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3342418/chatbots-replays-alibaba-rolls-out-ai-suite-2026-winter-olympics?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:41:13 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Moore Threads – one of China’s domestic artificial intelligence chip champions – has entered the intensifying race for AI coding tools with the launch of a new service built on its latest graphics processing unit (GPU). The Beijing-based company on Tuesday unveiled its “AI Coding Plan”, a vertically integrated development suite that runs on a fully domestic hardware-to-model stack, marking a strategic push beyond chipmaking into developer-facing software services. AI coding has emerged as a key... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3342398/moore-threads-sees-beyond-silicon-push-ai-coding?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3342398/moore-threads-sees-beyond-silicon-push-ai-coding?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Feb 2026 12:00:38 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Leading US and Chinese artificial intelligence models are frustrating to use in real-world settings because they struggle to learn from context, Tencent Holdings said in a new technical paper – the first co-authored by Vinces Yao Shunyu since he took up the role of chief AI scientist at the firm. AI developers need to place “context learning” at the centre of future model design if their products are to become genuinely useful outside controlled environments, according to researchers from... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3342386/when-context-everything-ai-models-still-struggle-real-world-tencent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3342386/when-context-everything-ai-models-still-struggle-real-world-tencent?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:01:44 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese open-source artificial intelligence models are being adopted by OpenClaw, the global hit AI agent, for their favourable balance of cost and performance, according to industry experts. OpenClaw, which has been a runaway success since its late 2025 launch, announced on Friday that it was offering Chinese start-up Moonshot AI’s latest Kimi K2.5 and Kimi Coding agent for free in its service, while adding support for MiniMax, another Chinese foundational AI developer. Analysts said Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342137/value-money-ai-agent-openclaw-adopts-chinese-models-cost-edge-over-us-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342137/value-money-ai-agent-openclaw-adopts-chinese-models-cost-edge-over-us-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:17 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding has joined rivals including Tencent Holdings and Baidu in rolling out Spring Festival red-packet giveaways to drive mass-market adoption of its artificial intelligence apps, committing 3 billion yuan (US$432 million) to spur spending across its ecosystem as it seeks to extend its edge in foundational models to consumer-facing products. The Hangzhou-based e-commerce and AI giant said on Monday that its AI app Qwen would anchor a Spring Festival campaign across its flagship... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342085/alibabas-qwen-ramps-ai-app-race-spring-festival-giveaway-blitz?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342085/alibabas-qwen-ramps-ai-app-race-spring-festival-giveaway-blitz?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:45:07 +0000 Coco Feng Coco Feng ByteDance and Alibaba Group Holding are poised to ratchet up their artificial intelligence infrastructure initiatives, as the global AI arms race continues to intensify. The two companies’ latest moves lend weight to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s recent remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the world was witnessing the biggest infrastructure buildout in history and that trillions of dollars of infrastructure still had to be built. Beijing-based ByteDance, operator of TikTok... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341863/china-tech-giants-bytedance-and-alibaba-ramp-ai-infrastructure-efforts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341863/china-tech-giants-bytedance-and-alibaba-ramp-ai-infrastructure-efforts?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:00:05 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Alibaba Group Holding has delivered more than 100,000 units of its most advanced artificial intelligence chip, the Zhenwu 810E, whose performance is said to be comparable to Nvidia’s H20, according to people familiar with the matter – a milestone that highlights the company’s growing role in China’s race to build domestic alternatives to US processors. The shipments, handled by Alibaba’s semiconductor arm T-Head, have already surpassed those of domestic rival Cambricon Technologies, the sources... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3341860/alibaba-ai-chip-push-hits-100000-mark-beating-local-rival-cambricon-sources?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3341860/alibaba-ai-chip-push-hits-100000-mark-beating-local-rival-cambricon-sources?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Jan 2026 11:24:07 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow China’s artificial intelligence hyperscalers have quickly added cloud support for Moltbot, formerly known as Clawdbot, an open-source AI agent that has exploded in popularity globally. Billed as the “AI that actually does things”, Moltbot’s ability to autonomously execute tasks without the user directing each action has caused waves in the global developer community, briefly lifting shares of US web infrastructure giant Cloudflare in pre-market trading on Tuesday before they later... https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3341701/chinas-cloud-giants-race-support-moltbot-ai-actually-does-things?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3341701/chinas-cloud-giants-race-support-moltbot-ai-actually-does-things?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:00:12 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Alibaba Group Holding’s semiconductor design arm, T-Head, on Thursday unveiled details of its advanced artificial intelligence chip with capabilities said to be on par with Nvidia’s H20, days after the unit was reportedly being prepared for a potential spin-off and public listing. According to information on T-Head’s website, the Zhenwu 810E was a “fully self-developed” parallel processing unit (PPU), an application-specific integrated circuit designed for both AI training and inference. Alibaba... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341703/alibabas-t-head-unit-unveils-details-ai-chip-designed-rival-nvidias-gpus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341703/alibabas-t-head-unit-unveils-details-ai-chip-designed-rival-nvidias-gpus?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jan 2026 10:00:30 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Education in China’s countryside should shift away from rote-based learning to focus on nurturing curiosity and creativity in the artificial intelligence era, Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma said in a meeting with rural teachers on Monday. In remarks published by the Jack Ma Foundation on Tuesday, former English teacher Ma said the dawn of the AI era posed a challenge for rural education, but also presented an opportunity to “return to the fundamentals of education”. Alibaba owns the South... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3341543/teach-our-children-well-jack-ma-urges-changes-chinas-rural-education-ai-era?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3341543/teach-our-children-well-jack-ma-urges-changes-chinas-rural-education-ai-era?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Jan 2026 11:00:09 +0000 Coco Feng Coco Feng Several Chinese cloud service providers are “evaluating price increases”, according to analysts, following recent moves by Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS), as the explosive growth of artificial intelligence drives demand. Google on Tuesday announced price rises of up to 100 per cent for certain services, effective May 1. For example, North American users of the CDN Interconnect, Direct Peering, and Carrier Peering services will pay US$0.08 per gigabyte, double the current rate. In Asia, the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3341516/price-rises-horizon-chinese-cloud-firms-after-google-and-aws-set-new-rates?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3341516/price-rises-horizon-chinese-cloud-firms-after-google-and-aws-set-new-rates?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Jan 2026 10:00:25 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek on Tuesday unveiled an upgraded version of its optical character recognition (OCR) model, incorporating an Alibaba Cloud-developed open-source system to boost performance. The new model, DeepSeek-OCR 2, replaced a key component of its original architecture with Alibaba Cloud’s lightweight Qwen2-0.5b model, according to a research paper released by the company. The update, which comes just over three months after DeepSeek launched the first... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3341437/deepseek-taps-alibaba-open-source-ai-technology-boost-ocr-performance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3341437/deepseek-taps-alibaba-open-source-ai-technology-boost-ocr-performance?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:00:13 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding and Moonshot AI have unveiled their latest flagship artificial intelligence models, narrowing the gap with US industry leaders OpenAI and Google DeepMind. The new models from two of China’s leading AI developers mark the first major Chinese model releases of this year, as industry observers continue to closely monitor the gap between the US and China in developing cutting-edge foundational models. Alibaba Cloud announced its biggest-ever model, Qwen3-Max-Thinking, on... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341380/chinas-alibaba-moonshot-claim-latest-flagship-ai-models-challenge-openai-google?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341380/chinas-alibaba-moonshot-claim-latest-flagship-ai-models-challenge-openai-google?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:30:08 +0000 Eunice Xu Eunice Xu Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen-3 became one of the world’s first general-purpose artificial intelligence models to be uploaded and operated in orbit, marking a milestone in China’s bid to lead the nascent space-based computing sector. Chinese aerospace start-up Adaspace Technology successfully deployed Qwen-3 to a space computing centre in orbit where it executed multiple inference tasks in November, according to company executive vice-president Wang Yabo, who spoke at a conference on Monday, as reported... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3341388/alibabas-qwen-3-becomes-worlds-first-ai-model-operate-orbit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3341388/alibabas-qwen-3-becomes-worlds-first-ai-model-operate-orbit?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:00:25 +0000 Iris Deng,Wency Chen Iris Deng,Wency Chen Pony Ma Huateng, founder and CEO of Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, has teased a new artificial intelligence-powered social feature in the company’s latest push to keep pace in China’s intensifying AI race. In an internal address to staff, Ma said Tencent was beta testing a new social tool inside its AI assistant app Yuanbao, and encouraged employees to try it out and help debug the feature, according to Tencent staff who attended the meeting. The feature, known in Chinese as Yuanbao Pai,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341288/tencents-pony-ma-flags-new-ai-social-feature-yuanbao-app?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341288/tencents-pony-ma-flags-new-ai-social-feature-yuanbao-app?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:24:49 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Baidu on Thursday unveiled Ernie 5.0, a multimodal artificial intelligence model with 2.4 trillion parameters, as use of the Chinese tech giant’s AI-powered namesake assistant climbed to 200 million monthly active users. The omni-modal foundation model, capable of processing text, images, audio and video, is the Beijing-based company’s most advanced to date. The model was first previewed in November and has since climbed the rankings. A leaderboard published last week by LMArena showed... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340866/baidu-launches-ernie-50-firms-ai-assistant-users-reach-200-million-month?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340866/baidu-launches-ernie-50-firms-ai-assistant-users-reach-200-million-month?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:30:15 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow New Google research into DeepSeek and Alibaba Cloud’s artificial intelligence models has found that powerful reasoning models capable of “thinking” demonstrated internal cognition resembling the mechanisms underpinning human collective intelligence. The findings published on Thursday suggested that perspective diversity, not just computational scale, was responsible for the increasing “intelligence” of AI models, while also underscoring the growing importance of Chinese open models for... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340690/google-study-finds-deepseek-alibaba-ai-models-mimic-human-collective-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340690/google-study-finds-deepseek-alibaba-ai-models-mimic-human-collective-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:00:09 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Alibaba’s ambition to turn its chatbot app into a powerful AI assistant that dramatically changes the way people interact with smart devices appears to be paying off, according to users and analysts. Instead of repeatedly swiping a screen to complete a task, a user can tell the Qwen app to conduct a range of tasks from ordering drinks to paying electricity bills after the Hangzhou-based technology giant links it to the group’s existing apps like shopping platform Taobao and payment interface... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340150/alibabas-upgraded-qwen-chatbot-app-receives-warm-consumer-reception?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340150/alibabas-upgraded-qwen-chatbot-app-receives-warm-consumer-reception?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:45:08 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow The race between the US and China to dominate the world’s artificial intelligence industry has become “complex and challenging to forecast”, according to ChatGPT creator OpenAI. In a blog post this week, published ahead of the first anniversary of DeepSeek’s release of breakthrough reasoning model R1 on January 20, OpenAI said another “seismic shock” from China could be on the cards, as anticipation heightened about a potential new major release from the Hangzhou-based start-up around the Lunar... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339901/openai-expects-another-seismic-shock-china-amid-speculation-new-deepseek-release?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339901/openai-expects-another-seismic-shock-china-amid-speculation-new-deepseek-release?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jan 2026 23:00:11 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence strategy is defined by a commitment to open-source models, the company said on Tuesday, following a year of soaring adoption for its suite of AI services. The statement came as Alibaba’s stock in New York rose more than 10 per cent on Monday, following news that its flagship Qwen family of AI models surpassed 700 million downloads on the developer platform Hugging Face, making it the world’s most widely adopted open-source AI system. “A defining... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339765/alibaba-reaffirms-open-source-ai-commitment-tech-giant-hails-qwen-achievements?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339765/alibaba-reaffirms-open-source-ai-commitment-tech-giant-hails-qwen-achievements?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2026 13:30:10 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Alibaba Cloud’s flagship Qwen family of artificial intelligence models surpassed 700 million downloads as of January on the developer platform Hugging Face, which made it the world’s most widely used open-source AI system. According to research published by Interconnects.ai, citing data from Hugging Face, estimated Qwen downloads as of December alone exceeded the combined total of the next eight most popular models on the platform globally, including those from Meta Platforms and OpenAI, as well... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339568/alibabas-qwen-family-hits-700-million-downloads-lead-global-open-source-ai-adoption?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339568/alibabas-qwen-family-hits-700-million-downloads-lead-global-open-source-ai-adoption?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2026 07:01:21 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang On the last day of 2025, DeepSeek published a new technical paper, with founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng among the 19 co-authors, about “manifold-constrained hyper-connections” – a general framework for training artificial intelligence systems at scale, which suggested “promising directions for the evolution of foundational models”. That release was a fitting reminder to the world, especially during the peak of the Christmas holiday season, about Chinese AI companies’ sharpened focus on innovation... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3338528/tech-war-china-takes-confident-strides-develop-more-ai-innovation-2026?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3338528/tech-war-china-takes-confident-strides-develop-more-ai-innovation-2026?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Jan 2026 03:00:22 +0000 Themis Qi Themis Qi CXMT Corporation, parent of Chinese memory chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), aims to raise 29.5 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) from an initial public offering in Shanghai to fund technology upgrades, as Beijing presses ahead with its drive for tech self-reliance amid geopolitical tensions. The Shanghai Stock Exchange received CXMT’s application for a listing on the Nasdaq-style Star Market, a filing on the bourse’s website showed on Tuesday night. This marks a critical step towards... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-future-tech/semiconductors/article/3338246/chinas-dram-giant-cxmt-plans-us42-billion-ipo-shanghais-star-market?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-future-tech/semiconductors/article/3338246/chinas-dram-giant-cxmt-plans-us42-billion-ipo-shanghais-star-market?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 Dec 2025 04:30:17 +0000