Alibaba says its new Qwen AI models rival systems far bigger in size

Alibaba’s Qwen series is part of China’s push to rival US AI systems. (Image credit: SCMP)

• Alibaba unveils Qwen 3.5 AI models rivaling larger systems
• Smaller Qwen models perform tasks needing much bigger models
• Qwen 3.5 models praised for efficiency and lower computing costs

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Company says smaller Qwen 3.5 models can rival far larger language systems.

Chinese technology company Alibaba says a new set of artificial intelligence models it recently released can compete with much larger systems developed by global rivals. The models are part of the company’s Qwen 3.5 family and are designed to deliver strong performance while using far fewer computing resources.

According to Alibaba, the smaller versions of the model such as Qwen 3.5-0.8B, 2B, 4B and 9B can perform tasks that normally require models roughly ten times their size. These tasks include language understanding, reasoning and multimodal processing that combines text with images or other inputs.

Large language models have typically grown bigger over the past few years, often requiring huge computing infrastructure and expensive chips to run. Alibaba’s approach focuses on efficiency instead. By making smaller models more capable, the company hopes to give developers powerful tools that can run on more modest hardware.

The Qwen series has become one of Alibaba’s main AI projects as Chinese technology companies push to compete with systems built in the United States. Major global AI platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini rely on extremely large models trained on massive computing clusters.

Smaller models like those in the Qwen 3.5 family could make AI more accessible because they can operate with lower computing costs. That makes them attractive for developers building applications that cannot rely on large cloud infrastructure.

The release has drawn attention in the global technology community. Elon Musk, who runs AI company xAI and electric car maker Tesla, described the new models as “impressive” in comments posted online.

Alibaba has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence through its cloud computing division, which provides infrastructure and tools for developers across Asia and other regions. The company sees AI as a central part of its future strategy as competition intensifies among technology giants.

While the race to build the most powerful models continues, many researchers are increasingly focused on efficiency. If smaller models can match the capabilities of far larger systems, they could lower the cost of deploying AI and expand where it can be used.

Alibaba’s latest release suggests that the next phase of the AI competition may not be about building the biggest models, but about building smarter and more efficient ones.