Apple has secured regulatory approval to bring its generative AI suite, Apple Intelligence, to China. The Cyberspace Administration of China gave the green light on Wednesday, following Apple’s partnership with Alibaba to embed the Qwen AI model across its operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS.

The deal, which had been rumored since last year, is a strategic win for Apple in a market where it recently saw a 28% sales jump in Greater China to $20.5 billion in the second quarter. Apple also reclaimed the No. 2 spot in China’s smartphone market after a shopping festival drove discounts on iPhones. Before settling on Alibaba, Apple reportedly struggled to adapt Baidu’s models for local users and explored options with DeepSeek and ByteDance, causing delays in bringing Apple Intelligence features—first launched in 2024—to Chinese customers.

Alibaba confirmed the partnership to CNBC, stating Qwen would be "integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences" for tasks like text and image understanding and generation, though no launch timeline was provided. The news lifted Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares by 4% in pre-market trading, with gains reaching over 6% by publication.

Source: TechCrunch