Alibaba Launches New AI Reasoning Model, Outperforming Rivals
Alibaba Group Holding announced the release of a new open-source artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning model on Thursday, claiming it surpasses the capabilities of DeepSeek’s R1. This announcement highlights the Chinese technology giant’s strong AI abilities across its models and data-center infrastructure. Following the launch of its QwQ-32B model, Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares saw a remarkable surge, closing nearly 8.4% higher at HK$140.80 on Thursday.
While the QwQ-32B model boasts a relatively modest 32 billion parameters, it has matched or exceeded DeepSeek’s R1, which has 671 billion parameters, in areas such as mathematics, programming, as well as general problem-solving, according to a blog post by the team responsible for Alibaba’s Qwen family of AI models.
The smaller parameter count enables the model to operate with reduced computing resources requirements. According to the team, this facilitates wider adoption. This lean design closely aligns with the views expressed by Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai in a recent column for the South China Morning Post.
This release is a significant follow-up to DeepSeek’s R1, which, in January, had already caused ripples in the world of technology and financial markets. The new model is designed to think, critique, and reflect to come up with solutions to complex problems.
