# Apple Intelligence approved for launch in China with Alibaba and Baidu

> Apple has finally gotten the green light to ship Apple Intelligence in China, and it did so by leaning on local partners rather than its own models. China's Cyberspace Administration signed off on integrations that route text and image work through Alibaba's Qwen, with Baidu also building features for Chinese users across iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS. That regulatory approval had been the missing piece, since earlier plans stalled when Apple could not clear the country's rules on homegrown AI oversight. The stakes are hard to overstate for Apple. Greater China brought in $20.5 billion in sales last quarter, up 28 percent year over year, and a phone without competitive AI features risks looking dated against domestic rivals that already ship their own assistants. The deal is also a template for how Western AI reaches China at all, not directly, but filtered through an approved local model. For everyone watching the US and China split into separate AI stacks, this is a concrete example. Apple keeps its hardware story intact, Alibaba and Baidu gain enormous distribution, and Chinese regulators keep foreign models at arm's length. Everybody gets something, which is usually why deals like this actually happen.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: TechCrunch · Published Sunday, July 19, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Apple has finally gotten the green light to ship Apple Intelligence in China, and it did so by leaning on local partners rather than its own models. China's Cyberspace Administration signed off on integrations that route text and image work through Alibaba's Qwen, with Baidu also building features for Chinese users across iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS. That regulatory approval had been the missing piece, since earlier plans stalled when Apple could not clear the country's rules on homegrown AI oversight. The stakes are hard to overstate for Apple. Greater China brought in $20.5 billion in sales last quarter, up 28 percent year over year, and a phone without competitive AI features risks looking dated against domestic rivals that already ship their own assistants. The deal is also a template for how Western AI reaches China at all, not directly, but filtered through an approved local model. For everyone watching the US and China split into separate AI stacks, this is a concrete example. Apple keeps its hardware story intact, Alibaba and Baidu gain enormous distribution, and Chinese regulators keep foreign models at arm's length. Everybody gets something, which is usually why deals like this actually happen.

## Source

[Read the full story at TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/16/apple-intelligence-approved-for-launch-in-china-with-alibabas-qwen-ai/)

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