Apple’s partnership with Alibaba for artificial intelligence services in China has been going on for a while. Just before that, it was shared that the company evaluated Deepseek. Now, President of Alibaba Joe Tsai officially confirmed Apple partnership at the World Government Summit event in Dubai.

The obstacle is lifted for Apple Intelligence

In his announcement at the event, Alibaba President Tsai announced that Apple had met with more than one company in China, but ultimately chose Alibaba. Before making this decision, Apple was also in contact with local technology giants such as Baidu, ByTedance and Tencent. However, there was no agreement with Deepseek, which had a great impact in the AI ​​ecosystem.

So what does this partnership provide? Apple needs to work with a government -approved local partner in order to provide artificial intelligence services in China. In other words, foreign companies do not have the permission to provide direct AI services. For this reason, Apple Intelligence has not been available in the Chinese market to date.

Now this will change thanks to the agreement with Alibaba. A clear calendar has not yet been shared about when Apple Intelligence will be commissioned in China. However, Considering that Apple’s iPhone sales have recently declined, this integration is expected to increase the competitiveness of the company in China.

Meanwhile, the Qwen AI model developed by Alibaba is more powerful than the company’s claim, including Deepseek and Chatgpt. According to The Information, Apple and Alibaba presented the first AI features they have developed to China’s cyber security regulator and is waiting for the approval process.