Apple Reportedly Poaches Alibaba's Original Qwen Team to Resurrect Siri in China

Apple is making a dramatic move in China's AI landscape. According to a report from Wccftech, Apple has secured the original core team behind Alibaba's open-source Qwen large language model, signaling a bet on Chinese AI talent to rescue Siri in the country.

Qwen is Alibaba's flagship open-source LLM series, known for its strong Chinese-language understanding, multimodal capabilities, and active open-source ecosystem. The original founding team behind Qwen is widely regarded as one of China's most accomplished AI research groups. If the report is accurate, Apple gains immediate access to top-tier AI engineers who deeply understand Chinese semantics and local user expectations.

Siri has long struggled in China against homegrown rivals like Baidu's Ernie Bot and ByteDance's Doubao, as well as the Chinese-language versions of ChatGPT. Apple has been searching for ways to inject stronger AI capabilities into Siri, and acquiring the Qwen team could dramatically shorten the timeline for delivering a competitive AI assistant experience in China.

The report does not disclose financial terms, team size, or a start timeline, nor does it clarify whether Apple has a broader commercial partnership with Alibaba. Alibaba has not publicly commented.

This move comes amid an intensifying global AI talent war. The flow of top-tier LLM teams to Big Tech is not unprecedented, but Apple directly recruiting a core research group from a major Chinese internet company is remarkable given the sensitive geopolitical climate.

For Siri, this is a must-win battle. Apple faces fierce competition from Huawei, Xiaomi, and other local smartphone makers on AI assistant capabilities, along with regulatory barriers that prevent foreign AI models from serving Chinese users directly. Having a homegrown AI team is the most direct path to overcoming these obstacles.

On a broader level, this could reshape China's AI talent market. When Big Tech goes directly after core LLM teams, it may drive up valuations for AI talent and push more Chinese AI startups to become talent feeders rather than direct competitors.

The next things to watch are whether Apple deepens its strategic relationship with Alibaba and when these hires will translate into tangible improvements for Siri's Chinese users.