Alibaba lays out AI plan for Qwen models, chips and agents

At its annual Apsara conference, the Chinese technology giant Alibaba lifted the veil on a unified plan for artificial intelligence. The plan covers everything from computer chips to the language models behind chatbots and AI assistants.

Alibaba said the company's next big language model, Qwen 4, is in training. At the same time, a plan was presented for the upcoming models Qwen 4.5 and Qwen 5, which according to the company could contain up to 10 trillion parameters, the number that roughly indicates how large and advanced an AI model is.

Alibaba's chip division, T-Head, also showed a new AI processor called Zhenwu V900. According to the company, it delivers three times the performance of the previous model. Such chips are used to train and run AI models and are crucial because China has difficulty accessing the newest American AI chips.

On the agent side, meaning AI systems that can carry out tasks on their own rather than just answering questions, Alibaba launched a solution called Qwen Intelligence. It is meant to let phone makers build AI-powered mobile phones where a digital assistant can handle more complex tasks across several apps, for example ordering something or planning a trip without the user having to click through each app.

Alibaba also highlighted experiments in which AI improves its own models and even helps design chips, without humans steering every step. This is an example of what the industry calls self-improving AI, which several large tech companies are experimenting with.

Overall, the plan shows that Alibaba is betting on controlling the entire chain itself, from chips and cloud infrastructure to the finished AI products that companies and consumers use. That gives Alibaba a head start in the competition with other AI companies, both Chinese and international, and is also an attempt to make itself less dependent on foreign technology.

What this means for you

If you use Qwen or phones with Alibaba's AI, you may eventually get an assistant that handles several steps on its own, for example booking a trip across apps. If you are a developer or a company, the upcoming Qwen models may give you an alternative to the Western AI providers. Right now, you can simply follow along; there is nothing to download or set up yet.