Alibaba launches DeepSeek rival, sending stock surging
The news prompted Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares to close 8% higher and helped boost the Hang Seng's China Enterprises Index.
Alibaba touted its new model, QwQ-32B, in an online statement as delivering 'exceptional performance, almost entirely surpassing OpenAI-o1-mini and rivaling the strongest open-source reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1.' OpenAI-o1-mini is the American company's cost-efficient reasoning model released last year.
Alibaba added the model has achieved a 'qualitative leap in mathematics, coding, and general capabilities, with overall performance on par with DeepSeek R1,' it said in the statement.
The company claimed that its model has 32 billion parameters compared with DeepSeek's R1, which has 671 billion parameters. Fewer parameters imply a model is smaller and more efficient to train.
DeepSeek stunned the world in January with its high-performing reasoning model R1 that it said cost far less to train than established Western rivals. Its success has shored up confidence among global investors in Chinese companies' ability to innovate at the time when the US-China tech rivalry intensifies. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index has surged over 30% since January.
Alibaba, the owner of Chinese e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, first launched its ChatGPT-equivalent service Tongyi Qianwen in 2023, after OpenAI launched its industry-defining AI reasoning model.
In January, Alibaba released another model, Qwen 2.5 Max, which it said surpassed the performance of DeepSeek's highly acclaimed V3 model, released just a few weeks before.
Last week, Alibaba pledged to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($52.4 billion) in its AI and cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years. It said the amount exceeded what it had invested in those areas over the past decade.
On Wednesday, Chinese leaders pledged support for 'emerging industries and industries of the future,' including increasing funding for artificial intelligence, humanoid robots and quantum technology.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
26 minutes ago
- Business Insider
U.S. Senators Warn Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about His Trip to China
Two U.S. senators—Republican Jim Banks and Democrat Elizabeth Warren—sent a letter to Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang on Friday, urging him to be cautious during his trip to China. They asked him not to meet with any companies that are believed to be helping China get around U.S. export restrictions, especially those connected to the Chinese military or intelligence agencies and that are listed on the U.S. export blacklist. The senators warned that even appearing to support these companies could weaken U.S. efforts to control advanced chip exports. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. Huang's trip was scheduled for the same day the letter was sent. In response, an Nvidia spokesperson said that when American technology leads the global standard, 'America wins,' and noted that China has one of the world's largest groups of software developers. They added that AI systems should be designed to run best on U.S.-based hardware, which would encourage other countries to choose U.S. tech over alternatives. However, the concern from lawmakers is that Huang's meetings could expose weaknesses in current rules and send the wrong signal about America's stance on protecting its technology. This issue ties into recent tensions between Nvidia and U.S. regulators. At the Computex trade show in May, Huang praised President Donald Trump's decision to loosen some AI chip export rules and called the earlier restrictions ineffective. But newer limits put in place in April could still cost Nvidia up to $15 billion in lost revenue. Lawmakers are now considering laws that would require chipmakers to verify where their products end up. There are also growing fears that Chinese companies like DeepSeek are helping the military and using fake companies to dodge the rules. Despite all this, Nvidia is reportedly preparing a cheaper version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. What Is a Good Price for NVDA? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on NVDA stock based on 37 Buys, four Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average NVDA price target of $176.29 per share implies 6.7% upside potential.
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
OpenAI's $3 billion deal with AI coding startup Windsurf collapses, as Google swoops in for licensing deal
Google has struck a licensing deal with coding startup Windsurf, upending OpenAI's $3 billion offer to acquire the startup after the clock on the deal's exclusivity period expired. The deal with Google means that Windsurf will continue to operate as an independent startup while key members of the team join Google, a source familiar with the matter told Fortune. 'We're excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf's team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,' a Google spokesperson told Fortune in an emailed statement. The email also contained a statement from Windsurf founders Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen saying 'We are excited to be joining Google DeepMind along with some of the Windsurf team.' The news represents a setback for ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and comes as the generative AI startup has suffered talent raids from rivals like Meta. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to Fortune that the exclusivity period for the $3 billion acquisition deal with Windsurf, entered into in May, had expired, leaving Windsurf free to pursue other options. AI coding startups, which use generative AI to assist programmers in writing code, have become one of the hottest categories in tech. Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, built on OpenAI's technology, has gained widespread adoption. In addition, Cursor, a startup backed by VCs like Thrive Capital, Accel, and Andreessen Horowitz, recently raised a $900 million Series C, hitting a $9 billion valuation. Prior to making its bid for Windsurf, OpenAI had approached Anysphere about acquiring Cursor—but these discussions fell through as the startup wasn't interested in being bought 'even by OpenAI,' according to a report in TechCrunch. Founded in 2021 by MIT classmates, and initially called Codeium, the startup changed its name to Windsurf in April, shortly before the OpenAI offer. The startup's investors include Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Greenoaks, and Kleiner Perkins. TechCrunch reported in February that Windsurf was raising a funding round at a $2.85 billion valuation. This story was originally featured on
Business Insider
2 hours ago
- Business Insider
Stock Market News Review: SPY, QQQ Drop on Renewed Tariff Fears; Powell Resignation Rumors
Both the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) closed the Friday trading session in the red as tariff fears returned to the market. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. President Trump has slapped Canada with a 35% tariff, effective August 1. The steep rate is a step above Canada's reciprocal tariff of 26% announced on April 2. 'If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter,' said Trump. In an X post, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada would continue its efforts to stop the spread of the deadly drug. Additionally, Trump is considering imposing a blanket tariff of 15% or 20%, up from 10%. He reiterated his belief that the tariffs won't increase inflation and cited all-time highs in the stock market. U.S. yearly tariff revenue has surpassed $100 billion for the first time, with three months still remaining in fiscal year 2025. Tariff revenue was $27.2 billion in June, bringing the yearly total to $113 billion. The monthly average tariff revenue in 2024 was $7.2 billion. On top of that, the U.S. recorded a $27 billion surplus in June compared to $71 billion deficit a year ago. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi on Friday at the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Kuala Lumpur. Both parties concluded that the meeting was 'positive, pragmatic, and constructive.' They also agreed that a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would be beneficial for both countries. The U.S. and India are also making trade progress with the U.S. considering a less than 20% baseline tariff on imported Indian goods, according to Bloomberg. India doesn't expect to receive a tariff notification letter and believes that the U.S. will announce the deal, said people close to the situation. The timing of the announcement remains unclear. Finally, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte issued an eye-catching statement near the market close. 'I'm encouraged by reports that Jerome Powell is considering resigning. I think this will be the right decision for America, and the economy will boom,' said Pulte. However, there are no confirmed reports that Powell intends to resign.
