Apple Intelligence approved for launch in China, powered by Alibaba's Qwen

8:29 AM · July 15, 2026

China's Cyberspace Administration has approved Apple Intelligence for launch in the Chinese market, according to TechCrunch, with Alibaba's Qwen model integrated into the underlying features across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS. The approval ends months of delay for Apple in a market where regulatory clearance for AI features has been unusually difficult to secure, and follows unsuccessful negotiations with other AI providers before Apple settled on Alibaba as its partner. China is a crucial market for Apple, which generated 20.5 billion dollars in sales there in the second quarter of 2026, and the deal gives the company a path to finally bring its AI features to Chinese users after competitors had already rolled out comparable functionality. The arrangement also underscores how dependent Western hardware makers have become on partnering with domestic Chinese AI labs to clear local regulatory review, a dynamic that has already shaped how other foreign technology firms operate in the country.