Alibaba Cloud is ramping up its global push to attract AI developers and users with a major expansion of its artificial intelligence offerings. The company is enhancing its suite of AI tools available internationally, focusing on new platform-as-a-service options through its Singapore availability zones. This expansion is part of Alibaba’s strategy to build a stronger presence in the global AI market.
Alibaba Cloud is rolling out its latest proprietary AI models, including Qwen-Max and the QwQ-Plus reasoning model, which is similar to DeepSeek. This move is a clear sign of Alibaba’s aggressive campaign to attract both domestic and international AI users and developers. Since the debut of DeepSeek in January, Alibaba has been on an intense pace of releasing AI products and updates, including affordable business intelligence tools for developers priced at just $1 per year for individuals.
The broader Chinese AI industry has been flooding the market with low-cost or even free AI services, with DeepSeek making waves in Silicon Valley for its cost-effectiveness in model training and operations earlier this year.
Alibaba is also preparing to launch an upgrade to its AI offerings, with the Qwen three flagship model expected to release as early as this month, according to Bloomberg. Additionally, the company unveiled an updated version of its Quark AI assistant, which integrates chatbot functionalities, deep thinking, and task execution capabilities.
On top of the cloud services aimed at enticing AI developers, Alibaba on Tuesday also introduced a new range of software-as-a-service products designed for end-users. Among these are AI Doc, a tool for parsing various types of documents, and Smart Studio, a content creation platform powered by generative AI.
