Apple Sets December China Launch for Apple Intelligence With Alibaba's Qwen, With Beta Testing From 4 November

Apple will put Alibaba's Qwen model inside Apple Intelligence for users in mainland China, with testing in the latest iOS developer beta from 4 November and a public rollout planned for December with iOS 27.3, according to an announcement made on Saturday 31 October 2026. CGTN, citing Xinhua, attributed the announcement to Alibaba Group, while China Daily's report, republished by Asia News Network, said Apple announced the plan; the sources do not settle which company spoke first, and neither gives a financial value for the arrangement.

The announcement turns a partnership first rumoured in early 2025 into a dated product. Apple Intelligence debuted in 2024 but was held back in China because it lacked regulatory approval, and the Qwen integration is the route Apple took to launch there.

What will Chinese users get?

Qwen will surface in three places: Siri, Apple's Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. China Daily's report says Siri can call on Qwen's wider knowledge for some requests, and that users can ask questions about selected photos and documents, including PDFs and presentations. A "Compose with Qwen" option generates text and images from a prompt, and Visual Intelligence gains an "Ask Qwen" option for identifying objects and places.

The first release also bundles Apple's own features: real-time translation, photo object removal, notification and email summaries, smart replies, and tools for rewriting, proofreading and summarising text. China Daily reports that the December update leaves out the more advanced Siri features and the next-generation Apple Intelligence features shown at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference.

Support is limited to newer hardware. According to China Daily, compatible devices include the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, the iPhone 16 and later models, and the iPhone Air; the report also lists an "iPhone Duo," which may be an error. Device and Siri languages must be set to English or Simplified Chinese. CGTN adds that the feature is for iPhones bought in China, or devices where both the location and the Apple Account country or region are set to China.

How is user data handled?

Both reports describe an opt-in design. Users choose whether to enable the Qwen integration and what information to share, and China Daily says Apple requires permission before anything is sent to Qwen. Users can sign in through Apple or with an existing Qwen account. Alibaba says requests and generated responses passing through the integration will not be used to train its models.

Those commitments are the company's statements; the sources reviewed do not describe any independent audit of how data flows between Apple's systems and Alibaba's.

Why did it take until now?

China's cyberspace regulator registered Apple's on-device generative AI service in July, a step both reports describe as clearing a major regulatory hurdle. TechCrunch reported at the time, citing a Reuters report from 15 July, that the Cyberspace Administration approved Apple's AI services after Apple agreed to integrate Qwen into its operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS. Alibaba confirmed the deal to CNBC then, saying Qwen would be "integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences" with no timeframe.

CGTN notes that the July filing covered seven on-device generative AI services for smartphones, including Apple Intelligence, but says the article does not make clear whether that filing specifically covers the Qwen integration. That ambiguity matters for the December date: the sources report the regulatory milestone but not whether further approvals are required before the public release.

What does it mean for Apple and Alibaba?

For Alibaba, the deal places Qwen inside the most visible AI surface on iPhones sold in the world's largest smartphone market. Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said, according to China Daily, that "drawing on Alibaba's deep AI capabilities, Qwen will be deeply integrated into experiences across the Apple ecosystem." CGTN quotes him saying Qwen will "work with Apple to deliver new AI-powered service experiences to Chinese users."

Wang Xiaojie, an AI expert at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told CGTN it is the first time a top global consumer hardware maker has used a Chinese large model as the primary system-level AI backbone in the Chinese market. That is one expert's characterisation and the sources do not test it against other deals.

For Apple, the stakes are commercial. TechCrunch reported that Apple's Greater China sales reached $20.5 billion in the second quarter, up 28% from a year earlier, and that Apple had regained the No. 2 position in China's smartphone market after discounts during a recent shopping festival.

Is Qwen the only partner?

Not necessarily. TechCrunch's July report added a statement from a Baidu spokesperson confirming that Baidu is also working with Apple on Apple Intelligence features for Chinese users, and noted that Apple was reportedly exploring integrations with DeepSeek and ByteDance. Earlier reports from December 2024, TechCrunch said, had Apple struggling to adapt Baidu's models for Chinese users. The October announcement names only Qwen; what role Baidu's models will play, if any, in the December release has not been reported in the sources reviewed.

What we don't know yet

Several details are unconfirmed. Neither Apple nor Alibaba has disclosed financial terms or the length of the agreement, according to CGTN. It is unclear which company made the first announcement, given the differing attributions. The scope of regulatory sign-off for the Qwen features specifically, as opposed to Apple's service in general, is not spelled out. And the sources describe nothing about when Chinese users of devices beyond iPhones will gain access.

The nearest checkpoint is 4 November, when developers can try the Qwen features in the iOS beta. That will give outsiders their first look at how often Siri hands requests to Qwen, what the permission prompts look like, and how the integration behaves compared with Apple's own models, before the December release shows how many users switch it on.