Two hands hold a smartphone whose screen is a soft, blurred glow above a dark wooden table beside a rain-streaked window at night, the city lights outside blurred into round spots of warm and coloured light.

The Phone

Apple Puts Alibaba’s Qwen Into Siri in China

Apple says Siri will be able to call on Alibaba’s Qwen in mainland China; testing starts Nov. 4, and iOS 27.3 brings it to users in December.

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 30 — Siri will be able to call on Alibaba’s Qwen for certain requests in mainland China, Apple said on Friday, in a Chinese-language release announcing that Apple Intelligence is coming to the country. Testing opens on Wednesday, Nov. 4, in the latest iOS developer beta, and the features reach users in China with iOS 27.3 in December.

Apple said its own generative models drive Apple Intelligence. In addition, it said, it has partnered with Alibaba to add support for Qwen in some Apple Intelligence features, so that users in China can use Qwen directly in Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, including features that understand text and images.

For certain requests, Siri can reach Qwen and draw on its broad knowledge, Apple said, and users can ask questions about photos and about documents, PDFs and presentations among them. They get to Qwen by signing in with a Qwen account or with Sign in with Apple. In Writing Tools, which work throughout the system, users can have Qwen write original content from scratch.

The rest of the first wave is a list of features: Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime and Phone calls; Clean Up in Photos; Genmoji; summaries of mail, notifications and recordings; and typing to Siri. The update does not include Siri AI or the other next-generation Apple Intelligence features Apple announced at WWDC 2026, the release says.Siri AI“At WWDC26, we were thrilled to introduce the all-new Siri AI, alongside all of Apple’s latest software innovations and important new child safety features,” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in Apple’s July 30 earnings release.

The features are for the iPhone: the iPhone 16 and later, the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, and the iPhone Air. Apple’s footnote names English and Simplified Chinese as the language settings for Siri and the device. Support on Apple’s other platforms, it said, will follow once it obtains the necessary approvals.

The path ran through Beijing. In July the Cyberspace Administration of China included Apple’s AI services on a list of approved providers, CNBC reported, after a long route to approval since Apple first announced the service in 2024. An Alibaba spokesperson told CNBC then that “Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences within iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for users in China.” CNBC also noted that U.S. lawmakers were considering how to curb the growing use of Chinese AI models by American companies.

The segment Apple calls Greater China brought in $18.8 billion of net sales in the quarter that ended June 27, up 22 percent from a year earlier, mainly on higher iPhone sales, Apple’s quarterly filing says.Apple’s RegionsIn that quarter the Americas segment had $45.8 billion of Apple’s $109.4 billion in net sales and Europe $29.4 billion, ahead of Greater China. A stronger renminbi helped, the filing adds.

Apple reports its fiscal fourth quarter on Monday, with a call at 5 p.m. Eastern. Its shares closed Friday at $344.63, down 1.23 percent on the day and up 3.49 percent for October.AAPLNasdaq350.69▲8.32+2.4%Apple · Monday’s session In Hong Kong, in the first session there since Apple’s release, Alibaba’s shares closed Monday at HK$99.45, up 2.47 percent from Friday; the Hang Seng index rose 0.42 percent.

The next dates are Apple’s own: the developer beta from Wednesday and iOS 27.3 in December. The Mac and the iPad wait on the necessary approvals, for which Apple has given no date.

Sources

  1. Apple Newsroom (mainland China), in Chinese, “Apple 智能即将登陆中国,” Oct. 30, 2026.
  2. Apple Investor Relations (event feed), “FY 26 Fourth Quarter Results,” Nov. 2, 2026.
  3. Apple (SEC Form 10-Q), “Quarterly report for the quarter ended June 27, 2026,” July 31, 2026.
  4. Apple, “Apple reports third quarter results,” July 30, 2026.
  5. CNBC, “Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares rise 4% after Qwen AI set to be integrated in Apple Intelligence,” July 15, 2026.
  6. MacRumors, “Apple Says iOS 27.3 Beta Coming Next Week,” Oct. 30, 2026.
  7. TechNode, “Apple confirms Qwen integration for China AI rollout, with beta testing starting November 4,” Nov. 2, 2026.
  8. Nasdaq, “Apple (AAPL), daily historical closes,” Oct. 30, 2026.
  9. CNBC, “Alibaba Group Holding Limited (9988-HK) quote,” Nov. 2, 2026.
  10. CNBC, “Hang Seng Index (.HSI) quote,” Nov. 2, 2026.