Apple Intelligence Wins China Approval, With Alibaba's Qwen and Baidu Powering the Rollout

Overview

China’s internet regulator has approved Apple’s AI service for domestic deployment, clearing Apple Intelligence to launch in the country for the first time after a two-year delay, according to the South China Morning Post. Alibaba’s Qwen model will be integrated across Apple’s operating systems for Chinese users, while Baidu is contributing on a smaller scale, according to MacRumors.

What We Know

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog, issued the approval on Wednesday, permitting Apple to deploy its AI service domestically, the South China Morning Post reported. The license “was granted alongside six other smartphone-based AI services, including those for Samsung and Huawei Technologies,” according to the South China Morning Post.

An Alibaba representative said Qwen would “be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences within iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS for users in China,” the South China Morning Post reported, enabling AI capabilities that Apple described as “text and image understanding and generation,” according to TechCrunch. Separately, Alibaba said Qwen would be built into the version of Apple Intelligence that ships with compatible iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro models in China, per Engadget. A Baidu representative confirmed “it was working with Apple to develop AI features for Apple Intelligence in China,” the South China Morning Post reported, a role MacRumors described as “contributing on a smaller scale.”

The approval caps a process that has run for roughly two years. Apple “briefly switched the features on early for some Chinese users back in March, months ahead of getting the green light,” MacRumors reported. Reports that Apple was in talks with Alibaba and Baidu “first emerged as far back as early 2025,” according to Engadget. Before settling on Alibaba, Apple had also explored a deal with Baidu alone, as well as integrations with DeepSeek and with models from ByteDance, TechCrunch reported.

No launch date has been set. “No launch date has been given, though approval typically precedes a rollout by only a few months,” MacRumors reported.

The news moved markets: Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares “rose 4% in pre-market trading on news of the deal and are now up by over 6%, as of the time of publication,” TechCrunch reported. The deal lands as Apple’s most recently reported quarter showed Greater China sales up 28 percent to $20.5 billion, and after Apple “recently regained the No. 2 position in China’s smartphone market after a recent shopping festival offered discounts on the iPhone lineup,” according to TechCrunch.

What We Don’t Know

Apple, Alibaba and Baidu have not disclosed a specific date for the China rollout. There is also an unresolved discrepancy in scope: the South China Morning Post reported that “the licence applied only to iPhone devices, according to the official notice,” even though Alibaba’s own statements describe integration across iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS, or iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro more broadly. It remains unclear whether iPad, Mac and other devices will need separate regulatory clearance or whether the official notice simply didn’t address them. Neither Apple nor Alibaba has detailed exactly how tasks will be divided between Qwen and Baidu’s models within Apple Intelligence.