Alibaba Group Holding shares rose as much as 5.4 per cent on July 20 after the company launched a preview version of its flagship Qwen3.8 Max model, describing it as second only to Anthropic’s Fable 5.
The July 19 release came only days after start-up Moonshot AI unveiled a powerful new offering that has roiled markets and triggered concern in the US about China closing the gap on global leaders like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Qwen3.8 Max has 2.4 trillion parameters, joining Moonshot’s Kimi K3 in the heavyweight class. With 2.8 trillion parameters, K3 rivals top offerings, and Alibaba is setting similarly high expectations.
Developers can now access Qwen3.8 Max through Alibaba’s coding platforms, including Qoder. Alibaba plans to make the model open-weight soon, expanding access beyond the preview release.
Interest in these made-in-China artificial intelligence systems and models is so high that Moonshot was forced to pause taking on new subscriptions late on July 19 to manage overwhelming demand.
While optimism around Alibaba is growing, other contenders in China’s hotly contested AI race have suffered a drop in the wake of the new Kimi release. Rival Zhipu declined nearly 30 per cent on July 17 and added a further 14 per cent to the losses on July 20, after being one of the star debut stocks in Hong Kong for much of 2026.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba, China’s e-commerce leader and one of its biggest investors in AI, recently scored another victory after Beijing approved Apple Intelligence, the software suite for iPhones, iPads and other Apple gear, which will use Alibaba technology in the country. BLOOMBERG
