Alibaba's 2.4T AI Model: Qwen3.8-Max-Preview Rivals Anthropic

Alibaba has released a new flagship AI model called Qwen3.8-Max-Preview, boasting 2.4 trillion parameters. This model positions Alibaba as a major contender in the global AI race. What's interesting is that Alibaba claims it trails only Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 in overall performance. Following this announcement, Alibaba's shares climbed as much as 5.4% in Hong Kong. The company has made the model available on its coding platforms and plans to release the open weights soon, allowing other developers to build upon it. The bottom line is this release suggests significant progress in China's AI ambitions, even amidst export controls on advanced semiconductors, and highlights the ongoing, insatiable demand for AI compute power.