Apple Intelligence Comes to China With Alibaba's Qwen; Testing Starts Nov. 4 Ahead of December Release

Apple Intelligence is finally coming to China, about two years after its 2024 debut elsewhere. Alibaba announced on October 31 that its Qwen models will be integrated into Apple Intelligence for users in China, and Apple confirmed the rollout the same day. Testing starts November 4 in the latest iOS developer beta, and users in China get the features with the iOS 27.3 release in December. AppleInsider described the November 4 start as an open beta; Alibaba's and Apple's accounts describe it as a developer beta.

Qwen powers Siri, Writing Tools (through a "Compose with Qwen" option) and Visual Intelligence ("Ask Qwen"), and Apple asks for consent before any request is sent to Qwen. Alibaba said it will not use user requests or generated responses to train its models. Apple's own models handle Live Translation, Clean Up, Genmoji and mail and notification summaries. The rebuilt Siri assistant shown at WWDC 2026 is not part of the China launch.

Eligible devices start at the iPhone 15 Pro and include the iPhone Air and iPhone Duo, with the device and Siri set to English or Simplified Chinese. On the regulatory side, China's cyberspace regulator completed filings for Apple Intelligence in July, and Global Times reported that the industry ministry approved Alibaba's models for several Apple handsets earlier in October. Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said Qwen will "integrate into Apple's ecosystem and work with Apple to deliver new AI-powered service experiences."

For AAPL, the launch closes a long gap in a market where its iPhones have shipped without its flagship AI features. For BABA, it puts Qwen inside the system software of one of the most widely used premium phones in China. What to watch: whether the December date holds, how many users opt in to the Qwen features, and when the new Siri follows.