Alibaba launched its upgraded AI model, Qwen 2.5-Max, claiming it outperforms competitors such as DeepSeek-V3, GPT-4o, and Llama-3.1-405B.

Recently, DeepSeek’s rapid growth has increased competition in the AI sector, both domestically and internationally.

DeepSeek introduced its DeepSeek-V3 model earlier this month, followed by the R1 model on Jan. 20, sparking discussions on AI development costs for large firms.

In response to this competitive landscape, domestic tech companies are moving quickly. ByteDance upgraded its AI model, claiming it outperformed an OpenAI benchmark.

DeepSeek’s affordability and open-source V2 model started a price war, leading Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent to cut their AI prices.