Alibaba unveils Qwen 3.8 Max days after Kimi K3 as China’s AI race heats up
Alibaba launched its latest AI model, Qwen 3.8 Max, on July 19, 2026, positioning it as one of the most powerful large language models available, second only to Anthropic's Claude Fable 5. The model features 2.4 trillion parameters and will soon be accessible in an open-weight version, allowing developers to utilize it through Alibaba's platforms. This release comes amid a competitive push from Chinese tech firms to match the capabilities of leading US AI models, following the recent unveiling of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3, which boasts 2.8 trillion parameters.