According to reports, Apple has teamed with Alibaba to extend its Apple Intelligence platform to Chinese markets.
The agreement is alleged to have come after the iPhone maker reportedly considered — but eventually rejected — a prospective partnership with uber-buzzy AI firm DeepSeek as well as ByteDance.
Apple initially chose Baidu as a partner in bringing Apple Intelligence to its Chinese clients, but the challenges of modifying the Chinese search giant’s models were apparently too enormous to overcome.
While China has been an important market for the corporation, the headline feature has yet to be introduced in the world’s largest smartphone market.
CEO Tim Cook highlighted a lack of Apple Intelligence as a contributing factor to China’s recent 11% fall in iPhone sales. Domestic phone manufacturers, like Huawei, have moved in to fill that need.
The fresh report comes before of Apple’s expected fourth-generation iPhone SE release.
The low-cost handset has long been a major driver of iPhone sales in China and India, the world’s first and second largest smartphone markets, respectively.
Apple previously partnered with Open AI for Apple Intelligence’s U.S. launch. That deal adds ChatGPT access to the Siri smart assistant. Apple has also stated that it is open to additional partnerships, including Google’s Gemini.
