According to a report by Bloomberg News on Tuesday, Alibaba Group, the tech and e-commerce giant from China, is gearing up to introduce Qwen 3, an upgraded iteration of its primary AI model. The release is anticipated to be in April, although the exact timing remains subject to change. Requests for comment from Alibaba to Reuters have yet to receive a response. The rapid pace of new product launches in the AI industry has been fueled by heightened competition following the success of China’s DeepSeek earlier this year, which introduced a cost-effective model compared to its Western counterparts. In response to DeepSeek’s global impact, Alibaba swiftly released Qwen 2.5-Max, claiming superiority over DeepSeek-V3. The timing of Qwen 2.5-Max’s launch during the Lunar New Year underscored the competitive pressure faced by industry players. Reports from February revealed DeepSeek’s plans to unveil a successor to its R1 model, highly praised in Silicon Valley, before May.
