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Alibaba expands AI portfolio with Qwen3.5

Alibaba Group has unveiled its latest AI model, Qwen3.5, marking a significant step in China’s rapidly evolving artificial intelligence market. The release comes amid a flurry of AI activity from both domestic and international competitors, as companies focus on developing autonomous AI agents capable of executing complex tasks independently.

Qwen3.5 is available in two versions: an open-weight model that allows organizations to download, fine-tune, and deploy it on their own infrastructure, and a hosted model — Qwen-3.5-Plus — which runs on Alibaba’s cloud servers via its Model Studio platform. Both versions were released on Monday, coinciding with the eve of the Chinese New Year.

Performance, efficiency, and global reach

Alibaba highlighted that Qwen3.5 provides notable improvements in both computational efficiency and cost compared with prior models. The platform integrates native multimodal capabilities, allowing it to process text, images, and video simultaneously, and supports advanced coding and agentic functions.

The model is compatible with open-source AI agents such as OpenClaw, which has gained significant traction for automating tasks and software processes. AI agents are increasingly being deployed to handle multi-step workflows with minimal human supervision, a development that has attracted attention in both commercial and tech markets.

Qwen3.5 supports 201 languages and dialects, more than double the 82 supported by its predecessor, reflecting Alibaba’s ambitions for broader global applications. The open-weight version contains 397 billion parameters, a slight reduction from the company’s previous flagship but optimized for improved benchmark performance.

Competing in the agentic AI landscape

China’s AI sector is seeing intensified competition. Local rivals such as ByteDance and Zhipu AI released upgraded models in the same timeframe, emphasizing agentic capabilities. Analysts say this signals a strategic pivot from conventional chatbots to autonomous AI systems that could disrupt traditional software-as-a-service business models.

Marc Einstein, research director at Counterpoint Research, noted that AI agents may “upend traditional Internet business models,” and that Chinese AI firms are preparing aggressively to avoid being left behind.

Benchmark tests from Alibaba show Qwen3.5 performing on par with global competitors such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, although these results are self-reported and have not been independently verified.

Strategic timing and future releases

The release of Qwen3.5 aligns with broader global AI developments. In the U.S., OpenAI recently acquired the creator of OpenClaw, and Anthropic launched new agent-focused tools. Alibaba has indicated that additional open-weight models will be released during the Chinese New Year period, as the company seeks to strengthen its foothold in both domestic and international markets.

Lin Junyang, technical lead for Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen team, emphasized that the focus on agentic capabilities is designed to empower enterprises to integrate AI into real-world applications more efficiently, from automating workflows to building complex AI-powered apps.

Outlook for China’s AI race

Industry observers note that Chinese AI companies, including Alibaba, are closing the gap with Western competitors. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis recently remarked that Chinese AI models are just “months” behind leading U.S. systems. With the launch of Qwen3.5, Alibaba is signaling its intent to compete aggressively on both performance and versatility, targeting global developers and enterprises ready to leverage autonomous AI agents for commercial applications.