Shares of Alibaba Group saw a significant 8% increase on Thursday, following the announcement of a new artificial intelligence (AI) model from the company’s AI unit, Qwen. The model, called QwQ-32B, boasts 32 billion parameters and is touted by the e-commerce giant to offer performance on par with the DeepSeek R1 model, which is known for its 671 billion parameters.
The news came just a day after China’s government reiterated its commitment to supporting emerging technologies such as AI, humanoid robots, and 6G telecommunications. The government’s backing is seen as a key factor in the growing adoption of AI across various industries, including government agencies and smaller businesses in China.
Qwen announced that the new QwQ-32B model is available through its chatbot service, Qwen Chat. Users can access a range of Qwen models, including Qwen2.5-Max, the most advanced in the Qwen series. The QwQ-32B has demonstrated impressive results in benchmark tests, excelling in mathematical reasoning, coding, and general problem-solving. Its performance closely matches top models, such as OpenAI’s o1 mini and DeepSeek’s R1.
DeepSeek has rapidly emerged as a leader in China’s AI industry, offering high-performance models at a fraction of the cost of global competitors, thanks to its less resource-intensive computing.
Analysts predict that the government’s initiatives will further propel AI’s integration into China’s economy. “China is quickly establishing an AI ecosystem driven by applications that focus not just on research, but on tangible economic impact,” said Sun Wei, principal AI analyst at Counterpoint Research.
In response to the announcement, Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares surged to HK$140.5 each, reflecting the market’s optimism around the company’s AI advancements.
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