(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc.’s iPhones will use Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s artificial intelligence technology in China, the Chinese firm’s chairman said, affirming reports that the e-commerce pioneer had scored a coveted role in helping power the iPhone.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Joseph Tsai’s comments came after his company’s shares rose to a 2022 high in Hong Kong following a report about the partnership between the two leading tech firms.
Securing Apple as an AI customer marks a significant win in Alibaba’s pursuit of a leading position in the highly competitive domestic AI market in China. On Thursday, Baidu Inc. announced it was making its flagship AI chatbot free, making its own foray to grab a larger slice of the market.
“Apple has been very selective, they talked to a number of companies in China, and in the end they chose to do business with us, they want to use our AI to power their phones,” Tsai told Jeffrey Katzenberg during an interview at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Apple has yet to provide its full suite of AI features in China because of regulations that require it to partner with a locally accredited company, Tsai explained. He added that he expects that would be the case for the long term, but did not specify if Alibaba is or would be the exclusive AI provider for Apple in China.
The iPhone maker has yet to officially unveil a long-term partner for its AI offerings in the country, after signing a landmark deal with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iPhones internationally.
Alibaba could present a strong local partner to Apple, which on its part is fighting to revive sales in the country as rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co. move ahead with AI-enabled smartphones.
(Updates with additional context from the second paragraph.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
