Chinese tech giant Alibaba has released its latest artificial intelligence model, Qwen 2.5-Max, on Wednesday, claiming it surpasses prominent competitors, including DeepSeek-V3, OpenAI’s GPT-4o, and Meta’s Llama-3.1-405B.
The timing of the release—on the first day of the Lunar New Year—reflects the mounting pressure in China’s AI race, especially following the rapid rise of DeepSeek, an emerging AI startup that has disrupted the industry in recent weeks.
DeepSeek’s January rollout of its AI assistant and subsequent R1 model sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, causing tech stocks to dip as investors questioned the high costs of U.S.-based AI firms. Its efficiency and affordability have intensified competition, prompting domestic rivals like Alibaba and ByteDance to accelerate AI advancements.
In response, Alibaba’s cloud unit stated that Qwen 2.5-Max “outperforms almost across the board” compared to its rivals, underscoring the growing rivalry among Chinese AI developers. Similarly, ByteDance recently updated its flagship AI model, claiming it outperformed OpenAI’s o1 in a benchmark test.
DeepSeek’s disruptive impact extends beyond technological advancements—it has also triggered a price war. When DeepSeek-V2 launched last May with an unprecedentedly low cost of 1 yuan ($0.14) per million tokens, Alibaba and other tech firms, including Baidu (9888.HK) and Tencent (0700.HK), were forced to slash their AI model pricing.
DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, has remained defiant in the face of competition, stating in a rare interview that his company prioritizes achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) over engaging in price wars. Unlike China’s corporate giants, DeepSeek operates with a lean structure, mainly employing young researchers and Ph.D. students.
As the battle for AI dominance heats up, Chinese tech giants are under pressure to innovate rapidly while balancing cost efficiency—a race that could reshape the global AI landscape
AI News Monitor 
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