China’s Alibaba takes another swipe at America’s AI supremacy
Alibaba has released its new Qwen3.8-Max AI model, claiming performance that rivals top-tier models from US companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. The release intensifies the technological competition between China and the US in the field of artificial intelligence.
Why it matters
The emergence of highly capable Chinese AI models challenges the current US dominance in the sector and raises questions about global technological leadership.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba released what it says is its largest and “most capable AI model to date,” claiming performance rivalling the best systems from US frontier labs Anthropic and OpenAI, as well as domestic rivals like Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3. Alibaba said it was making the model, Qwen3.8-Max, widely available to users in a blog post published on Monday. The release had been expected after the company previewed the model last month, when it claimed it was “second only to Fable 5,” Anthropic’s flagship.
The open release of another highly capable Chinese AI model adds to sky-high tensions along multiple fronts in Silicon Valley and Washington over how to safely manage AI systems and retain the US’ technological edge over China.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in