China’s Cyberspace Administration of China approved Apple Intelligence for launch in the country following an agreement to integrate Alibaba’s Qwen AI model into Apple’s operating systems. The regulator cleared the deployment of these services on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS after Apple settled on a partnership with Alibaba following earlier discussions with Baidu, DeepSeek, and ByteDance. This decision follows reports that previous attempts to adapt other models for local customers caused delays in bringing features that debuted in 2024 to the Chinese market. Alibaba confirmed the integration includes text and image understanding and generation capabilities but did not provide a specific timeframe for availability. The announcement caused shares of Alibaba to rise by over 6% in pre-market trading in the United States. This development addresses a significant hurdle for Apple’s growth in Greater China, where sales increased by 28% to $20.5 billion in the second quarter. The company recently regained second place in the local smartphone market after offering discounts during a shopping festival. Resolving regulatory and technical barriers here is essential for maintaining market share against domestic competitors.
- Regulatory approval comes after failed negotiations with Baidu and ByteDance
- Integration covers text, image understanding, and generation
- Alibaba shares rose more than 6% following the announcement
