Apple published a guide on Thursday detailing how Mac users in mainland China can integrate Alibaba's Qwen artificial-intelligence service with Apple software. The guide explains the process for connecting the Chinese-developed AI to the Siri digital assistant and Apple’s Writing Tools feature on eligible computers.
The integration follows a period of declining market share for Apple in China's personal computer (PC) market. According to data from Omdia, Mac shipments in mainland China fell 9% year-on-year in the first quarter, leaving Apple with a 9% market share. By comparison, domestic manufacturers Lenovo and Huawei held 31% and 16% of the market, respectively, while promoting their own locally developed AI features.
According to the guide, users who opt in can use Qwen through Siri to receive detailed responses for photo and document analysis. The Writing Tools feature will also be able to use the service to generate text or images based on user descriptions. The extension is designed for Macs running macOS 26.6 or later, and users must sign in to a Qwen account. The guide states that Alibaba is prohibited from using materials submitted through this integration to train or improve its AI models.
For Apple, the integration provides a way to compete with domestic rivals like Lenovo and Huawei, who have already integrated AI agents like Tianxi into their hardware. By using Alibaba’s Qwen, Apple can offer advanced AI functions that meet local regulatory requirements while maintaining the standard Mac user interface. The move allows Apple to address the 22-percentage-point market share gap between itself and Lenovo by offering similar locally-tuned AI capabilities.
The arrangement also expands the reach of Alibaba’s Qwen family of generative-AI models beyond the company's own cloud services and applications. Alibaba recently released Qwen3.8-Max, a model containing 2.4 trillion parameters, though the guide does not specify which version of Qwen powers the Mac extension. While the guide has been published, it remains focused on Macs running macOS 26.6 or later, with no specific timeline provided for the previously announced expansion to other Apple hardware.