Apple has published a support guide explaining how eligible Mac users in mainland China can connect Alibaba's Qwen artificial-intelligence service to Siri and its Writing Tools feature, in the clearest sign yet that the US tech giant is leaning on a Chinese partner to compete in China's fast-moving AI PC market.
The arrangement, first reported by Reuters on August 8, lets users who opt in use Qwen through Siri for more detailed responses to some requests — including analysis of photos and documents — while Writing Tools can draw on the service to create text or images from a description. The extension targets Macs running macOS 26.6 or later, and users must activate it and sign in to a Qwen account. Apple's guide also states that Alibaba cannot use the materials processed through the integration to train or improve its models.
The move comes as Apple loses ground in China's PC market. Mac shipments in mainland China fell 9% year on year in the first quarter to about 800,000 units, leaving Apple with a 9% share — far behind Lenovo's 31% and Huawei's fast-growing 16%, according to Omdia. Lenovo has made its Tianxi personal AI agent central to its AI-PC strategy, while Huawei is weaving AI functions across its HarmonyOS ecosystem.
For Alibaba, the integration with Apple's built-in software could broaden Qwen's reach well beyond its own apps and cloud services. The e-commerce giant this week released Qwen3.8-Max, a 2.4-trillion-parameter model it calls its most capable to date. Apple's guide does not specify which Qwen model powers the Mac extension, though Alibaba has previously said Qwen will be incorporated into Apple Intelligence across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro in China.
