The Rise of Qwen

Innovation or Imitation? How Alibaba’s AI Actually Stacks Up

For years, the global AI narrative has been dominated by Silicon Valley names: OpenAI, Google, and xAI. But in late 2024 and throughout 2025, a shift occurred. Alibaba’s Qwen (Tongyi Qianwen) series has quietly—and then loudly—broken through the “China-only” ceiling to become a legitimate globa…