Chinese technology leader Alibaba introduced its newest artificial intelligence reasoning model on Thursday, claiming it surpasses competing models from OpenAI and the startup DeepSeek. This announcement led to an 8% increase in Alibaba’s shares listed in Hong Kong and contributed to a rise in the Hang Seng’s China Enterprises Index.
The unveiling of Alibaba’s AI model followed the day after the introduction of a “general AI agent” named Manus by another firm. A promotional video for Manus indicates that the software can perform intricate, multi-step tasks like screening job applications and building websites. As reported by Reuters, Manus is developed by the Chinese company Monica.
The video further highlights that this AI agent is more sophisticated than a typical chatbot, as it not only generates ideas but also produces concrete outcomes, such as a report that recommends properties for purchase based on specific criteria.
Alibaba touted its new model, QwQ-32B, in an online statement as delivering “exceptional performance, almost entirely surpassing OpenAI-o1-mini and rivaling the strongest open-source reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1.” OpenAI-o1-mini is the American company’s cost-efficient reasoning model released last year.
Alibaba added the model has achieved a “qualitative leap in mathematics, coding, and general capabilities, with overall performance on par with DeepSeek R1,” it said in the statement.
The company asserted that its model features 32 billion parameters, in contrast to DeepSeek’s R1, which boasts 671 billion parameters. A lower number of parameters suggests a more compact and efficient model for training.
In January, DeepSeek amazed the industry with its R1 reasoning model, claiming it required significantly less investment to train compared to established Western competitors. This achievement has bolstered global investor confidence in the innovative capabilities of Chinese firms amid escalating US-China tech tensions. Since January, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index has risen by over 30%.
Alibaba, which owns the Chinese e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, introduced its ChatGPT-like service, Tongyi Qianwen, in 2023, following OpenAI’s launch of its groundbreaking AI reasoning model.
In January, Alibaba also unveiled another model, Qwen 2.5 Max, claiming it outperformed DeepSeek’s highly praised V3 model, which had been released just weeks earlier.
Last week, Alibaba announced plans to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($52.4 billion) in its AI and cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years, a figure that surpasses its total investment in these sectors over the past decade.
On Wednesday, Chinese leaders pledged support for “emerging industries and industries of the future,” including increasing funding for artificial intelligence, humanoid robots and quantum technology.
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