Apple wins China approval for AI services with Alibaba deal

Apple Intelligence won approval in China after Apple lined up Alibaba’s Qwen model to run across iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS for users in the country. The clearance from the Cyberspace Administration of China on Wednesday gave Apple a long-awaited path into a market where advanced AI features have moved only with local partners and regulatory signoff.

The deal shows how different Apple’s China rollout is from its push elsewhere. Outside mainland China, Apple has been able to add AI features on its own terms. In China, the company had to wait for approval, work with a domestic partner and tailor the product to Beijing’s rules before bringing Apple Intelligence to Chinese users.

Alibaba confirmed that Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences in China, giving users text and image understanding and generation without switching apps. Apple has also been working with Baidu on additional Apple Intelligence features for Chinese iPhone users, a sign that the company may be splitting functions across more than one local partner to satisfy the market’s technical and regulatory demands.

The timing matters for Apple’s business. Apple’s Greater China revenue rose 28 percent to $20.5 billion in the fiscal second quarter of 2026, a result that underscored how important the region remains to Cupertino. IDC estimated that China smartphone shipments totaled about 66 million units in the second quarter of 2026, down 4.3 percent from a year earlier, while Apple’s share climbed to 18.1 percent from 13.9 percent. Apple and Huawei were the only major vendors to post growth in the period.

Apple had already been laying groundwork for the launch. It expanded Apple Intelligence to support traditional Chinese in November 2025 and previewed the next generation of Apple Intelligence and Siri AI at WWDC on June 8, 2026. In March 2026, Apple smartphone sales in China rose 23 percent in the first nine weeks of the year, helped by discounts during the June 618 shopping festival and a rebound that lifted Apple back to No. 2 in the market.

For Alibaba, the approval places Qwen inside one of the world’s most valuable consumer device ecosystems. For Apple, it is a reminder that artificial intelligence is no longer just a software feature or a hardware selling point. In China, it is also a matter of market access, local partnership and state approval, and that is likely to shape how other U.S. technology companies bring AI to the country.