Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5: A Quiet Yet Promising Launch

China continues to make strides in AI as 2025 begins. After the highly publicized release of DeepSeek V3, Alibaba introduced its own AI models: the Qwen 2.5 family. However, unlike its competitor, the launch generated little market buzz.

A Quiet Launch Compared to DeepSeek V3

When DeepSeek V3 was unveiled, it immediately sparked intense discussion, including a temporary drop in U.S. AI stocks. In contrast, the Qwen 2.5 launch was much more subdued. Although Alibaba claims its models can compete with GPT-4 or Claude 3.5, the reception was more tempered.

This difference likely stems from public perception. DeepSeek made waves with competitive training costs and high performance, raising concerns among Western companies. Alibaba, however, focused on technological advancements and potential applications without aggressively promoting development costs.

A Different Market Response

While DeepSeek’s release caused AI stock values to dip, Qwen 2.5 had little effect on the American market. In fact, Alibaba’s stock rose by about 5% over five days, signaling positive investor sentiment.

This reaction can be attributed to several factors:

• Alibaba’s Established Image: Unlike DeepSeek, Alibaba is a well-established player with a robust cloud infrastructure, providing reassurance to investors.
• Less Perceived Disruption: While DeepSeek touted revolutionary pricing and accessibility, Alibaba aligns more with traditional strategies, focusing on performance and integration within its ecosystem.
• Limited Geographic Impact: Qwen 2.5 targets the Chinese and Asian markets, minimizing its direct impact on U.S. AI giants.

Impressive but Still Evolving

Initial feedback on Qwen 2.5 highlights its strong performance, particularly in video analysis and complex math problem-solving. Alibaba offers various versions, from open-source models on Hugging Face (like Qwen 2.5-VL-3B and 7B) to more powerful but restricted variants (Qwen 2.5-VL-72B).

However, independent tests revealed room for improvement. Benchmarks showed uneven results, especially in third-party software integration, akin to OpenAI’s Operator feature, suggesting further refinement is needed.

Conclusion: A Serious Yet Quiet Competitor

Qwen 2.5 is a significant leap for Alibaba and the Chinese AI market. Though its launch was less dramatic than DeepSeek’s, it signals the growing strength of Chinese tech giants in the AI race. Its immediate impact remains moderate, both on the stock market and in Western tech discussions.

With ongoing refinements, Qwen could become a major global AI player, but for now, the launch seems to benefit Alibaba more than disrupt the market.

Sources

• https://github.com/QwenLM
• https://huggingface.co/Qwen