Latest developments on Apple’s AI launch in China: potential partnership with Alibaba, DeepSeek abandoned.
According to a report by Information Daily on February 12, Apple is collaborating with Chinese internet giant Alibaba on AI. The AI functionality of iPhones in China may be supported by Alibaba’s technology.
Sources say that Apple and Alibaba have already submitted a jointly developed Chinese version of the AI functionality, which is in the process of being filed with Chinese regulators. This indicates that the collaboration has made significant progress.
The report also mentions that Apple has tested DeepSeek’s model but decided not to adopt it. The reason was that Apple believed the DeepSeek team lacked the manpower and experience to support large clients like Apple.
Sources revealed that Apple started testing AI models developed by top Chinese AI companies in 2023, initially selecting Baidu as the main partner. However, the cooperation with Baidu didn’t go smoothly, and the progress on the model Baidu developed for “Apple Intelligence” did not meet Apple’s standards.
Therefore, in recent months, Apple began considering other options, evaluating models from Tencent, ByteDance, Alibaba, and DeepSeek.
One source confirmed that Apple ultimately did not adopt DeepSeek’s model, as the team lacked the necessary support for large clients like Apple.
It is unclear whether Apple will completely abandon Baidu’s model, but there is a possibility that Baidu’s model could become an alternative option for Chinese iPhone users to access “Apple Intelligence.”
Three other sources indicated that Apple’s goal is to find a Chinese partner who can understand the needs of local users based on Chinese consumer data.
While evaluating the performance of AI models from different companies, Apple expressed dissatisfaction with their ability to understand user intent and incorporate actual phone usage into generated responses.
One source with direct knowledge of the decision-making process said that as an e-commerce giant, Alibaba has more personal consumer data from Chinese users than Baidu, including shopping and payment habits. Alibaba’s AI model is trained on these data sets, which can help “Apple Intelligence” provide more personalized services for Chinese users.
A person close to Alibaba revealed that due to Chinese data privacy laws, Alibaba will not share its personalized data sets with Apple.
Alibaba, as the largest cloud service provider in China, has a clear advantage in B2B business but lags behind ByteDance in B2C, with ByteDance’s Doubao app far surpassing Tongyi Qianwen in user numbers.
As for the launch of the Chinese version of Apple Intelligence in China, Apple had previously mentioned the month of April, but this timeline is closely tied to the approval process from domestic regulators.
On March 25, Apple will hold a “Deep Dive into Apple Intelligence and Machine Learning” developer event in Shanghai. It remains to be seen whether there will be more developments regarding Apple’s AI in China.
The report suggests that Apple’s AI launch in China is part of its strategy to counter Huawei’s competition. Currently, Apple is facing increasingly intense competition in the Chinese market. Finding the right AI partner in China and successfully launching AI is crucial for Apple to curb the decline in its sales in the region.
In the past two years, Apple’s revenue in China has continued to decline, with a drop of 11% in the fourth quarter of last year. The shift of Chinese consumers toward domestic brands like Huawei is a key factor.
According to Canalys data, Apple’s market share in China rebounded to the top spot in the fourth quarter of 2024, with a 17% market share, though shipments declined by 25% year-on-year. The domestic market shipments of vivo, Huawei, Xiaomi, and OPPO all showed positive growth compared to the previous year.
Apple’s “Apple Intelligence” was officially launched in June last year but has not yet been rolled out in China. The AI models in Apple products sold in China must be developed by domestic companies.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had previously mentioned in an earnings call that iPhone sales in the fourth quarter of last year were significantly impacted by the “lack of Apple Intelligence.”
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