2025-04-07 3:13 PM
DeepSeek stunned the world in January with its high-performing reasoning model R1 that it said cost far less to train than established Western rivals. Its success has shored up confidence among global investors in Chinese companies’ ability to innovate at the time when the US-China tech rivalry intensifies. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index has surged over 30% since January.
Alibaba, the owner of Chinese e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, first launched its ChatGPT-equivalent service Tongyi Qianwen in 2023, after OpenAI launched its industry-defining AI reasoning model.
In January, Alibaba released another model, Qwen 2.5 Max, which it said surpassed the performance of DeepSeek’s highly acclaimed V3 model, released just a few weeks before.
Last week, Alibaba pledged to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($52.4 billion) in its AI and cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years. It said the amount exceeded what it had invested in those areas over the past decade.
On Wednesday, Chinese leaders pledged support for “emerging industries and industries of the future,” including increasing funding for artificial intelligence, humanoid robots and quantum technology.