On March 6, 2025, Chinese tech giant Alibaba introduced its latest artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning model, QwQ-32B, which is positioned as a direct competitor to OpenAI’s and DeepSeek’s models. The announcement, made on Thursday, immediately impacted Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares, causing them to rise by 8% and contributing to a boost in the Hang Seng’s China Enterprises Index.
Alibaba’s new AI model, QwQ-32B, is touted to outperform OpenAI’s cost-efficient OpenAI-o1-mini and rival the high-performing DeepSeek R1, a leading open-source reasoning model. The company claims that QwQ-32B has achieved significant advancements in mathematics, coding, and general AI capabilities, bringing it on par with DeepSeek R1 in overall performance. The model features 32 billion parameters, a much smaller scale compared to DeepSeek’s R1 model, which boasts 671 billion parameters. Alibaba argues that fewer parameters mean a more efficient and easily trainable model, making QwQ-32B a more cost-effective alternative to its rivals.
The announcement of Alibaba’s new AI model comes shortly after the debut of another general AI agent, Manus, created by Chinese startup Monica. Manus is presented as a more advanced tool than traditional chatbots, able to complete complex, multi-step tasks such as screening resumes and creating websites. The agent is designed to deliver tangible results, such as generating reports and offering property recommendations based on user-defined criteria.
Alibaba has long been a key player in the AI landscape, having launched its first ChatGPT-equivalent service, Tongyi Qianwen, in 2023. The company has since made notable strides, including the release of the Qwen 2.5 Max model earlier this year, which claimed to surpass DeepSeek’s V3 model in performance. In a bid to solidify its position in the AI market, Alibaba announced a substantial investment of at least 380 billion yuan ($52.4 billion) over the next three years to expand its AI and cloud computing infrastructure. This investment will likely push the company ahead in the highly competitive AI race, as it seeks to capitalize on the increasing demand for AI capabilities.
With the global tech rivalry between China and the US intensifying, DeepSeek’s R1 model garnered significant attention earlier this year due to its cost-effective training process, which stood in stark contrast to the more expensive methods used by established Western players. The successful launch of Alibaba’s QwQ-32B further highlights China’s growing role as an innovator in the AI space.
In the broader context, China’s commitment to emerging technologies is evident in recent government pledges to support industries such as AI, humanoid robots, and quantum technology. This focus on future industries aligns with Alibaba’s vision for growth, and its new model is a testament to the company’s ambition to lead in the AI sector. As the competition between global tech giants heats up, Alibaba’s latest AI advancements may pave the way for more breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and further establish the company as a leader in this field.
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