--- title: Apple Intelligence gets China approval with Alibaba's... description: China's Cyberspace Administration has approved Apple Intelligence for launch in China, with Alibaba's Qwen AI models powering text and image features across... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/apple-intelligence-gets-china-approval-with-alibaba-s-qwen-ai-powering-it-stzhssinv twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Apple Intelligence gets China approval with Alibaba's Qwen AI powering it | daily.dev og:description: China's Cyberspace Administration has approved Apple Intelligence for launch in China, with Alibaba's Qwen AI models powering text and image features across... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/apple-intelligence-gets-china-approval-with-alibaba-s-qwen-ai-powering-it-stzhssinv og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/STzhSsINv.png og:image:alt: Apple Intelligence gets China approval with Alibaba's Qwen AI powering it og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Apple Intelligence gets China approval with Alibaba's Qwen AI powering it **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 2 min read · 5 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary China's Cyberspace Administration has approved Apple Intelligence for launch in China, with Alibaba's Qwen AI models powering text and image features across Apple's OS platforms. The approval ends a regulatory process lasting over a year since Apple and Alibaba's February 2025 deal. Alibaba shares rose 4-6% on the news. A notable technical development involves startup PrismML, which compressed Qwen from 54GB to under 4GB — enabling all 27 billion parameters to run on-device on an iPhone 15. Apple is reportedly in talks to acquire or license the technology. The deal carries geopolitical weight amid US-China tech tensions, and Alibaba faces prior accusations from Anthropic of distilling Claude to train its own models. ## Content China's Cyberspace Administration has approved Apple Intelligence for launch in the country, ending a regulatory process that began in 2024. The approval hinges on a partnership with Alibaba, whose Qwen AI models will handle text and image understanding and generation within iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for Chinese users. Baidu has also confirmed a separate collaboration with Apple on Intelligence features for the Chinese market. The Alibaba deal was originally struck in February 2025 but sat in regulatory limbo for over a year while Beijing worked through content filtering and security requirements. Apple had reportedly explored integrations with DeepSeek and ByteDance before landing on Alibaba and Baidu. The timing matters for Apple. China sales grew 28% to $20.5 billion in Q2, and the company recently reclaimed the No. 2 smartphone position in the market. Generative AI features have been a selling point elsewhere, and their absence in China was a real gap. Alibaba's US-listed shares rose around 4-6% on the news. There's an interesting technical footnote here too. Startup PrismML, backed by Khosla Ventures, managed to compress Qwen from 54GB down to under 4GB while keeping all 27 billion parameters intact — small enough to run on an iPhone 15. Apple is reportedly in talks with PrismML about the technology, which would matter a lot for on-device inference. The partnership carries some geopolitical weight. Anthropic previously accused Alibaba of running a large-scale distillation campaign against Claude, and the broader US-China tech rivalry makes any deep integration between an American hardware company and Chinese AI models worth watching closely. ## Questions this post answers ### Which AI model powers Apple Intelligence in China? Alibaba's Qwen AI models handle text and image understanding and generation within Apple Intelligence for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS in China. The deal was struck in February 2025 but took over a year to clear regulatory review by China's Cyberspace Administration. Baidu has a separate collaboration with Apple for Intelligence features in the same market. _Developers building for the China market can follow daily.dev for updates on Apple Intelligence and Qwen integration._ ### How did PrismML compress the Qwen 27 billion parameter model to fit on an iPhone? PrismML, backed by Khosla Ventures, compressed Qwen from 54GB down to under 4GB while keeping all 27 billion parameters intact, making it small enough to run on an iPhone 15. Apple is reportedly in talks with PrismML about adopting this compression technology for on-device inference. _Engineers weighing on-device model compression tradeoffs can track developments like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@bolitupac\_01** · 2 upvotes > So my Chinese variant 15pro will final be able to get Apple Intelligence? --- Tags: [#machine-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/machine-learning), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#local-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/local-ai), [#alibaba](https://daily.dev/tags/alibaba), [#apple-intelligence](https://daily.dev/tags/apple-intelligence) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/apple-intelligence-gets-china-approval-with-alibaba-s-qwen-ai-powering-it-stzhssinv) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Apple Intelligence gets China approval with Alibaba's Qwen AI powering it","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-intelligence-gets-china-approval-with-alibaba-s-qwen-ai-powering-it-stzhssinv","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-intelligence-gets-china-approval-with-alibaba-s-qwen-ai-powering-it-stzhssinv"},"datePublished":"2026-07-15T16:00:48.930Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:36:26.413Z","description":"China's Cyberspace Administration has approved Apple Intelligence for launch in China, with Alibaba's Qwen AI models powering text and image features across...","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-intelligence-gets-china-approval-with-alibaba-s-qwen-ai-powering-it-stzhssinv","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"machine-learning,llm,local-ai,alibaba,apple-intelligence","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Apple Intelligence gets China approval with Alibaba's Qwen AI powering it"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-intelligence-gets-china-approval-with-alibaba-s-qwen-ai-powering-it-stzhssinv","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"So my Chinese variant 15pro will final be able to get Apple Intelligence?","datePublished":"2026-07-16T05:41:03.251Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/STzhSsINv#c-gOrQClq3G","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Nanbol Dassak","url":"https://daily.dev/bolitupac_01","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--6er409mH--/f_auto/v1728837600/avatars/avatar_oGrQP81QRPTicqaCPh81Z"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-intelligence-gets-china-approval-with-alibaba-s-qwen-ai-powering-it-stzhssinv#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Which AI model powers Apple Intelligence in China?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Alibaba's Qwen AI models handle text and image understanding and generation within Apple Intelligence for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS in China. The deal was struck in February 2025 but took over a year to clear regulatory review by China's Cyberspace Administration. Baidu has a separate collaboration with Apple for Intelligence features in the same market. Developers building for the China market can follow daily.dev for updates on Apple Intelligence and Qwen integration."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How did PrismML compress the Qwen 27 billion parameter model to fit on an iPhone?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"PrismML, backed by Khosla Ventures, compressed Qwen from 54GB down to under 4GB while keeping all 27 billion parameters intact, making it small enough to run on an iPhone 15. Apple is reportedly in talks with PrismML about adopting this compression technology for on-device inference. Engineers weighing on-device model compression tradeoffs can track developments like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```