Alibaba Group Holding’s third-generation Qwen3 family of artificial intelligence (AI) models appears to have narrowed the gap between the United States and China in this field, while cementing the company’s leadership position in the global open-source community, according to analysts and reports.
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Hangzhou-based Alibaba’s cloud computing unit on Tuesday unveiled its much-anticipated Qwen3 family, consisting of eight enhanced models that range from 600 million to 235 billion parameters. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
In machine learning, parameters are the variables present in an AI system during training, which helps establish how data prompts yield the desired output.
Alibaba’s latest AI models showed that Chinese companies have significantly closed the gap with US firms, while the pace of innovation is expected to continue in spite of US export restrictions on advanced semiconductors, according to Su Lian Jye, chief analyst at research firm Omdia.
Omdia’s Su pointed out that the impact of such sanctions on China’s AI development efforts have diminished, compared to previous years. There has been growing availability of alternative AI chips from domestic suppliers such as Huawei Technologies and Cambricon Technologies.
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Alibaba’s latest AI model release reflects Qwen’s current position as the world’s largest open-source AI ecosystem, surpassing Facebook parent Meta Platforms’ Llama community.