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Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) is stepping harder into the global AI gameand it's not playing small. This week, the company rolled out a beefed-up lineup of AI tools through its Singapore cloud zones, spotlighting two new large language models: Qwen-Max and the DeepSeek-style QwQ-Plus. It's part of a bigger strategy to win over international developers and businesses, fast. After China's AI industry sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley earlier this year with DeepSeek's ultra-cheap training costs, Alibaba is now pushing even harder to position itself as the low-cost, high-value alternative for global AI adoption.
The upgrades don't stop there. Alibaba's about to drop its next heavyweight: Qwen 3, its flagship model, reportedly launching this month. That follows a string of rapid-fire updates including a smarter Quark AI assistantnow loaded with chatbot, deep reasoning, and task execution features. While US tech giants fight for AI dominance, Alibaba's approach is clear: price it low, ship it fast, and build sticky tools for developers. The $1-a-year business intelligence platform for coders? That wasn't a stunt. It's a message: come build with us.
Beyond tools for the builders, Alibaba is also moving upstreamchasing enterprise users with a new suite of SaaS products. AI Doc can parse everything from legalese to spreadsheets, while Smart Studio helps users spin up generative content with ease. Together, these moves signal Alibaba's next chapter: from cloud infrastructure player to full-stack AI platform. For investors, it's a high-conviction bet on whether Alibaba can translate deep tech innovation and aggressive pricing into global market shareand maybe, a much-needed narrative shift.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.