Alibaba Qwen emerges, escalating global competition for AI super gateways.

This week is a milestone for Alibaba. On November 17, Alibaba officially launched the "Qianwen" project and released the beta test of the "Qianwen APP" based on the Qwen3 open-source model, which boasts the best global performance. Its target is clearly ChatGPT. The battle for the leading AI gateway between Chinese and American tech giants has officially begun. With the release of Qianwen, Alibaba, the Chinese tech giant, is facing a new round of scrutiny from relevant parties. On November 20, Bloomberg commented that any attempt to constrain Alibaba through restrictive measures is unlikely to be effective and may backfire, aggravating the already complex international economic and trade tensions. In the AI field, few Chinese companies have made the U.S. so vigilant. The reason behind this is that Alibaba now has global influence in AI technology. Qianwen offers free services to users worldwide, which could potentially threaten Silicon Valley leader OpenAI, reportedly earning 70% of its annual revenue from consumer use of ChatGPT. On November 17, Alibaba officially announced the launch of the Qianwen APP beta, declaring its intent to “fully compete with ChatGPT by leveraging the world’s top-performing open-source model Qwen3, offering complimentary services, and integrating with various everyday scenarios.” After its launch, the Qianwen APP gained strong momentum. By November 19, just two days into the beta launch, the Qianwen APP had climbed to third place in Apple’s App Store's free apps ranking. Alibaba stated that the strategic goal for the Qianwen APP is to create the future “AI gateway for daily life,” becoming a personal AI assistant “that can chat and get things done.” Beyond smart conversations, the ability to accomplish tasks will be its core strength. Currently, Qianwen can perform complex tasks such as generating PPTs with a single command and has beaten some top global models in live investment competitions. Sources informed Wallstreetcn that Alibaba is planning to integrate various life scenarios, such as maps, food delivery, ticket booking, office work, learning, shopping, and healthcare into the Qianwen APP, to equip Qianwen with greater service capabilities. Why does Alibaba dare to declare open war on ChatGPT? It relies on two trump cards: first, completely free usage; second, its foundational tech capabilities, already recognized globally. Since going fully open-source in 2023, Alibaba’s Qwen models have been downloaded over 600 million times worldwide. Public records show that the recently released flagship model Qwen3-Max has surpassed top international models like GPT-4 and Claude 3 Opus in performance. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang revealed at the 2025 GTC conference that Qwen holds the highest market share among global open-source models and is still growing. At the same time, the Qwen model is becoming the technological cornerstone for Silicon Valley startups; Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky publicly stated that the company “heavily relies on Qwen” because it’s faster and better than OpenAI’s model. A phenomenon called “Qwen panic” has already emerged in Silicon Valley. To date, Alibaba’s Qianwen Qwen has open-sourced more than 300 models, with global downloads topping 600 million. The number of derivative models has surpassed 170,000, making it the largest open-source model family in the world, overtaking Meta’s Llama. It is reported that more and more global multinational companies are choosing to build systems based on Qwen rather than Silicon Valley alternatives. Although negative market sentiment once caused Alibaba’s stock price to fluctuate, investor moods quickly stabilized. The capital market remains bullish on Alibaba—Citigroup analysts recommended investors “buy on dips” and pointed out that Alibaba is unlikely to risk its reputation by crossing key lines. Bloomberg believes that although Alibaba’s AI ambitions face a complicated international environment, its technological rise is a foregone conclusion. Instead of trying to suppress competitors to maintain advantage, it’s wiser to focus on enhancing the appeal of one's own products for enterprises and consumers. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market carries risks; investors should exercise caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice nor does it consider individual users’ specific investment objectives, financial situations, or needs. Users should judge whether any opinion, viewpoint, or conclusion in this article is suitable to their own situation. Investing based on this information is at your own risk.