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

> Apple has spent nearly two years unable to ship its AI features in its single most important overseas market, and the reason was never really technical. China requires foreign AI to run on an approved domestic model, so Apple Intelligence sat in limbo until the Cyberspace Administration signed off on a workaround: Alibaba's Qwen handles the language work, while Baidu takes care of visual search. The stakes are easy to read in the numbers. Greater China generated $20.5 billion in Apple sales last quarter, up 28 percent, and Apple has been losing ground to local phone makers whose devices already shipped with AI baked in. Getting text and image understanding into iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS for Chinese users closes an awkward gap. It is also a reminder of how differently AI is governed around the world. The same Apple Intelligence that runs on Apple's own models elsewhere becomes a Qwen-and-Baidu product the moment it crosses into China, a quiet illustration that in this era the model inside your phone can depend as much on geopolitics as on engineering.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: TechCrunch · Published Saturday, July 18, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Apple has spent nearly two years unable to ship its AI features in its single most important overseas market, and the reason was never really technical. China requires foreign AI to run on an approved domestic model, so Apple Intelligence sat in limbo until the Cyberspace Administration signed off on a workaround: Alibaba's Qwen handles the language work, while Baidu takes care of visual search. The stakes are easy to read in the numbers. Greater China generated $20.5 billion in Apple sales last quarter, up 28 percent, and Apple has been losing ground to local phone makers whose devices already shipped with AI baked in. Getting text and image understanding into iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS for Chinese users closes an awkward gap. It is also a reminder of how differently AI is governed around the world. The same Apple Intelligence that runs on Apple's own models elsewhere becomes a Qwen-and-Baidu product the moment it crosses into China, a quiet illustration that in this era the model inside your phone can depend as much on geopolitics as on engineering.

## 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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