Apple now seems ready to offer much-awaited artificial intelligence features to its customers in China. For this, Apple is reportedly partnering with Chinese conglomerate Alibaba. Under this collaboration, both companies will work together to provide AI features for iPhone users in China, according to a report by The Information, citing persons familiar with the development.
Apple and Alibaba have developed AI features specifically for the Chinese market and submitted them for approval to China’s cyberspace regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, which oversees digital and cybersecurity policies in the country.
Last year, in a bid to provide AI features on the iPhone, Apple selected Baidu as its primary AI partner, but as per several reports, Baidu’s AI models did not meet Apple’s quality standards for Apple Intelligence. As a result, Apple explored other options, including AI models from Tencent, ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company), Alibaba, and Deepseek.
However, Apple rejected Deepseek (which claims to be a low-cost alternative to US AI firms) because the startup lacked the necessary resources and experience to handle a large-scale customer like Apple. Ultimately, Apple has partnered with Alibaba, suggesting that its AI capabilities are strong enough to meet Apple’s requirements. But both companies have not officially confirmed this development yet.
Apple’s decision to collaborate with Alibaba is said to be a strategic move to leverage Alibaba’s extensive consumer data to enhance its AI models and personalization efforts. Alibaba has vast amounts of data on users’ shopping behaviours, payment preferences and more. iPhone Maker can use this data to train its large language model and improve its AI-driven services.
The significance of this partnership increases as the iPhone maker struggles to keep up with local rivals in China due to the lack of AI features in its devices. Speaking of numbers, in Q1 2025, while the company’s total revenue rose 4% year over year to an all-time high of $124.3 billion, the Greater China region proved to be a major hurdle for Apple, with revenue dropping 11.1% year over year to $18.51 billion.
Local brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, and especially Huawei are giving tough competition to Apple. As we mentioned earlier, currently, the Cupertino-headquartered company is unable to offer AI features in its iPhones due to Chinese government restrictions and norms.
Considering the situation, such actions (partnering with local tech giants) for revival have become even more critical for Apple. A recent IDC data revealed a 0.3% decline in the company’s smartphone sales in China during Q3 2024. Meanwhile, Huawei saw a significant 42% increase in sales during the same period.
Content originally published on The Tech Media – Global technology news, latest gadget news and breaking tech news.
