--- title: “Second only to Fable 5:” Alibaba talks the talk with... description: Alibaba announced Qwen 3.8, claiming it is 'second only to Fable 5' (Anthropic's flagship), but provided no benchmark data, model card, architecture details,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/second-only-to-fable-5-alibaba-talks-the-talk-with-qwen3-8-without-providing-any-real-data-a31dqh6sa twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: “Second only to Fable 5:” Alibaba talks the talk with Qwen3.8 without providing any real data | daily.dev og:description: Alibaba announced Qwen 3.8, claiming it is 'second only to Fable 5' (Anthropic's flagship), but provided no benchmark data, model card, architecture details,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/second-only-to-fable-5-alibaba-talks-the-talk-with-qwen3-8-without-providing-any-real-data-a31dqh6sa og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/a31Dqh6sa.png og:image:alt: “Second only to Fable 5:” Alibaba talks the talk with Qwen3.8 without providing any real data 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. # “Second only to Fable 5:” Alibaba talks the talk with Qwen3.8 without providing any real data **[The New Stack](https://daily.dev/sources/newstack)** · 6 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Alibaba announced Qwen 3.8, claiming it is 'second only to Fable 5' (Anthropic's flagship), but provided no benchmark data, model card, architecture details, or release date — only a single post on X. The announcement came days after rival Moonshot debuted Kimi K3 with a full benchmark table, pricing, and a hard open-weight release date of July 27. AI analyst Julien Simon frames this as a 'checkpoint gap' problem: Qwen3.8's claim is unverifiable and undated, functioning more as a narrative play than a genuine model launch. The lack of numbers may be strategic — publishing benchmarks would either undercut Alibaba's own Moonshot investment (in which it holds a ~36% stake) or concede the ranking outright. Notably, Qwen's two previous flagship models shipped API-only, breaking its open-weight tradition, though Qwen3.8 is promised as open-weight 'soon.' ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Did Alibaba release benchmarks or a model card for Qwen3.8? No, Alibaba announced Qwen3.8 only via a single post on X, claiming it ranks second only to Anthropic's Fable 5 model, but provided no model card, benchmark table, pricing, or confirmed release date. The post also contained grammatical errors, including conflating 'compatible' with 'comparable.' _daily.dev helps developers separate substantiated model claims from marketing hype before committing to an LLM._ ### When is Kimi K3 releasing its open weights and how does it compare to Qwen3.8's announcement? Kimi K3's open weights are scheduled for release on July 27, accompanied by a published benchmark table, architecture details, and pricing already made available. This contrasts with Qwen3.8, which was announced with vague open-weight language, no date, no benchmarks, and no pricing, despite claiming a comparable frontier ranking. _track which open-weight models actually ship verifiable benchmarks on daily.dev before choosing one for production._ ### Why would Alibaba avoid publishing strong benchmarks for Qwen3.8 given its stake in Moonshot? Alibaba held roughly an $800 million, 36% stake in Moonshot as of 2024, and analyst Julien Simon argues that publishing benchmarks strong enough to beat Moonshot's Kimi K3 would undercut the value of that investment ahead of Moonshot's planned IPO, while falling short would concede the 'second only to Fable 5' claim outright. _daily.dev keeps developers informed on the business incentives shaping which AI model claims to trust._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Qwen 3.8 Released : Better than Kimi K3?](https://daily.dev/posts/qwen-3-8-released-better-than-kimi-k3--gsoqcloby) · Medium · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Qwen3.8-Max Just Passed Claude Fable 5 on the Frontend Leaderboard. We Compared Them on 10 UIs](https://daily.dev/posts/qwen3-8-max-just-passed-claude-fable-5-on-the-frontend-leaderboard-we-compared-them-on-10-uis-hwjkn2zkh) · Kilo Blog · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#qwen](https://daily.dev/tags/qwen), [#alibaba](https://daily.dev/tags/alibaba) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/second-only-to-fable-5-alibaba-talks-the-talk-with-qwen3-8-without-providing-any-real-data-a31dqh6sa) ```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":"“Second only to Fable 5:” Alibaba talks the talk with Qwen3.8 without providing any real data","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/second-only-to-fable-5-alibaba-talks-the-talk-with-qwen3-8-without-providing-any-real-data-a31dqh6sa","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/second-only-to-fable-5-alibaba-talks-the-talk-with-qwen3-8-without-providing-any-real-data-a31dqh6sa"},"datePublished":"2026-07-21T12:06:52.231Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:29:32.956Z","description":"Alibaba announced Qwen 3.8, claiming it is 'second only to Fable 5' (Anthropic's flagship), but provided no benchmark data, model card, architecture details,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e69f995004f079f6686ee5e7d747bf22?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e69f995004f079f6686ee5e7d747bf22?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The New Stack","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":"The New Stack","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/newstack","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/newstack"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/second-only-to-fable-5-alibaba-talks-the-talk-with-qwen3-8-without-providing-any-real-data-a31dqh6sa","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,open-source,llm,qwen,alibaba","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The New Stack","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/newstack"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"“Second only to Fable 5:” Alibaba talks the talk with Qwen3.8 without providing any real data"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/second-only-to-fable-5-alibaba-talks-the-talk-with-qwen3-8-without-providing-any-real-data-a31dqh6sa#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Did Alibaba release benchmarks or a model card for Qwen3.8?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No, Alibaba announced Qwen3.8 only via a single post on X, claiming it ranks second only to Anthropic's Fable 5 model, but provided no model card, benchmark table, pricing, or confirmed release date. 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