Apple Officially Partners with Alibaba! Apple Intelligence Integrates 'Qwen' – Siri Can Now Directly Call Upon It

Apple's (AAPL-US) artificial intelligence (AI) collaboration with Alibaba (09988-HK) is no longer just rumor or regulatory filing text—it has now been officially documented in Apple's product manuals.

Recently, users discovered that Apple's China website added a new page to its 'Mac User Guide' titled plainly: 'Using Tongyi Qwen with Apple Intelligence on Mac'.

This signifies that Alibaba's large language model 'Qwen' has officially become an integral component of the China-specific Apple Intelligence system.

According to Apple, Qwen does not appear to users as a standalone app but is deeply embedded into the core functionalities of Apple Intelligence.

For example, when Siri cannot fully answer complex queries, the system will internally call upon Qwen to enhance the response, including in-depth analysis of photos and documents. In Apple's writing tools, users can also leverage Qwen to generate text or images based on descriptive input.

In other words, most users may never need to actively open a 'Qwen app'—simply using Siri, analyzing documents, or activating AI writing features could unknowingly utilize the computational power of this China-based model.

In fact, signs of Apple and Alibaba's collaboration have existed for some time. In July, Reuters reported that Apple Intelligence's generative AI services had completed regulatory filings in China. To comply with local regulations, Apple chose to partner with both Alibaba and Baidu (BIDU-US), with Alibaba's Qwen model to be integrated across multiple system platforms including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Apple began advancing regulatory procedures in early 2025 and was co-developing China-specific AI features with Alibaba and Baidu.

However, prior knowledge was limited to 'who Apple is partnering with.' This latest update to the official user manual marks the first time the collaboration has been concretely implemented into the user experience.

The fact that Siri and writing tools can now call upon Qwen means that Qwen has secured not just a 'pre-installed app' slot, but access to Apple's most central AI entry points.

Analysts suggest this partnership reflects a fundamental shift in Apple's AI strategy.

In the smartphone era, Apple traditionally kept core software capabilities tightly in-house: designing its own chips, developing its own operating systems, and launching its own Siri.

However, in the generative AI era, with large models evolving rapidly, training costs soaring, and regulatory and data norms varying significantly across countries, Apple has begun transforming Apple Intelligence into a more flexible, layered architecture.

At the base layer, Apple still relies on its proprietary Apple Silicon chips and on-device models to handle personalized tasks, emphasizing the importance of on-device processing for privacy. But when users pose complex questions requiring more powerful models, the system switches to calling external models.

Apple has already adopted this approach in overseas markets; now, it is entrusting that role to local Chinese AI providers.

In essence, Apple is attempting to build a new 'AI supply chain': retaining control over operating systems, hardware, and user interfaces, while sourcing foundational model capabilities from different suppliers based on regional market needs.

For Alibaba: A Position More Valuable Than Just Being on the iPhone

For Alibaba, this partnership is equally significant.

Analysts note that over the past year, competition in China's large model market has intensified, with companies not only competing on model capability but also aggressively vying for user access points.

Alibaba's own Qwen app continues to expand features in office tools, lifestyle services, AI agents, and image/video generation, aiming to directly reach consumers.

However, what Apple offers is a fundamentally different kind of access point. It doesn't require users to consciously think 'I want to use AI' and open a separate app—instead, AI is seamlessly integrated into system functions users already rely on.

This effectively transforms large language models from standalone products into foundational capabilities operating behind the operating system.

Notably, the UK's Financial Times recently analyzed Alibaba's latest model, Qwen 3.8-Max, highlighting that Alibaba is positioning AI as a new technological and business growth engine, with Alibaba Cloud playing a pivotal role in commercializing model capabilities.

If tens of millions of Chinese Apple devices can call upon Qwen through system functions in the future, Alibaba will gain not only massive usage volume but also a powerful industry endorsement—proving its large model can serve as a foundational AI supplier within one of the world's largest consumer electronics ecosystems.