Apple AI services in China to become reality soon, Cupertino tech giant confirms partnership with Alibaba

Apple AI services in China will be a reality soon as the Cupertino based tech giant has entered a partnership with Alibaba, confirmed a report by Reuters. According to the report, Joseph Chung-Hsin Tsai, Alibaba chairman, has confirmed about the news at World Governments Summit 2025, Dubai. Apple and Alibaba will be catering the needs of users in China.

According to the report, Alibaba chairperson mentioned that Apple was in talks with a number of companies in China for providing AI services in the region. However, at the end, the Cupertino tech giant partnered with them. Earlier reports have mentioned that Apple was in talks with Tencent as well as TikTok parent company ByteDance for securing an AI partnership. Apple had also approached DeepSeek for the same.

Primary reason of Apple deciding to work with Alibaba is because of its massive amount of personal data about the China users’ shopping and payment behaviour. The presence of more data (made available through Alibaba) will allow the company to offer more customised AI features and services.

The report has also mentioned that Apple and Alibaba had co-developed several AI features and submitted them for approval from Chinese regulators.

For those who are unknown, the Apple Intelligence is not available in China. This is because Apple needs to partner with a local company in China in order to offer its AI services in the country. This partnership also favours local companies.