On January 29, Chinese technology company Alibaba unveiled a new AI model Qwen 2.5, which, according to developers, surpasses the highly rated DeepSeek-V3 model. The new achievement came against the backdrop of the Lunar New Year celebrations in China, when most citizens are on vacation, which emphasizes the importance of this event in the technology sector.

According to Reuters, Alibaba said that its Qwen 2.5-Max model shows better results compared to other popular AI models, such as GPT-4, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B. According to company representatives, the new intelligence significantly exceeds all previous models in a number of key indicators, which increases its competitiveness in the global market.

The release of Qwen 2.5-Max comes weeks after Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled its DeepSeek-V3 model on January 10, followed by the release of its updated R1 model on January 20. The moves have raised concerns among Silicon Valley tech giants, who have begun to question the effectiveness of their AI investments. One reason is that Chinese startups have significantly lower costs for developing and operating their technology.

DeepSeek’s achievement has taken the market by storm, but its success has also prompted other companies, including Alibaba, to aggressively improve their own AI models. Following the release of the Chinese startup’s R1 model, TikTok owner ByteDance also updated its AI model, saying its new update significantly outperforms OpenAI’s o1 model on the AIME benchmark test.

This test, which measures the ability of AI to understand and respond to complex instructions, is an important indicator of the performance of models. ByteDance said that their model is now ready to be compared with OpenAI, which has sparked additional interest in the industry.

Claims that Chinese companies’ models are capable of competing with well-known technology giants only intensify the competitive struggle between Chinese startups and American corporations. The release of new AI models has become an important signal for investors and technology companies, which will be forced to rethink their strategies in the high-tech market.

Thus, with each new release of an AI model from Chinese companies, their ability to seriously compete with global leaders in the technology industry, in particular in the development and application of innovative solutions in the field of AI, becomes increasingly obvious.