Alibaba launches advanced AI model to rival GPT-4; Softbank set to pour billions into OpenAI
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Alibaba launches advanced AI model to rival GPT-4; Softbank set to pour billions into OpenAI

Qwen2.5-Max is now available to developers through Alibaba Cloud services and can be accessed via Qwen Chat
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BEIJING: Chinese tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba on Wednesday announced the release of Qwen2.5-Max, an advanced artificial intelligence model that the company says outperforms several leading AI systems in key benchmarks.

The launch follows Chinese startup DeepSeek's recent release of models that stunned Silicon Valley and challenged assumptions about US dominance in the booming AI sector.

The rapid emergence of consecutive Chinese models will likely intensify concerns in the United States, where companies have invested billions of dollars in AI development that startups in China are matching at significantly lower costs.

In a blog post, the Qwen team said their new model outperformed DeepSeek V3 in multiple tests, including code generation and general capabilities, while showing competitive results against industry leaders like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Anthropic's Claude-3.5-Sonnet.

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The model, trained on over 20 trillion tokens of data, notably was not compared with DeepSeek's R1 model -- the reasoning-focused AI that made waves when it launched on a chatbot on January 20.

Qwen2.5-Max is now available to developers through Alibaba Cloud services and can be accessed via Qwen Chat, the company's conversational AI platform. The system offers compatibility with OpenAI's API format, potentially simplifying adoption for organizations already using similar AI services.

SoftBank eyes $15-25 billion investment in OpenAI: FT

Meanwhile the Financial Times reported on Thursday that Japan's SoftBank is in talks to invest $15-25 billion in OpenAI in a deal that would make it the ChatGPT-maker's biggest financial backer.

The report comes after Chinese startup DeepSeek sparked panic this week with a powerful new chatbot developed at a fraction of the cost of its US competitors, dealing a blow to markets.

SoftBank and OpenAI are part of the Stargate drive announced by US President Donald Trump to invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

The Japanese firm's mooted investment would come on top of its commitment of more than $15 billion to Stargate, the FT said, citing people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

"Ultimately, the Japanese company could spend more than $40bn on its partnership with OpenAI," the report said.

OpenAI will also invest $15 billion in Stargate, and SoftBank's equity investment in the US company could cover the latter's commitment to the AI infrastructure project, the FT added.

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SoftBank was not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP. Shares in the firm were down one percent in Tokyo trading Thursday morning.

The company, founded by Japanese tycoon Masayoshi Son, made spectacularly successful early bets on Yahoo! and Alibaba in the 1990s but some of its other investments have bombed.

Securing huge funding from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and others, Son -- an early backer of Trump -- has sought to pivot into AI, helped by SoftBank's stake in chip designer Arm.

Elon Musk has openly poured scorn on Stargate, saying on X this month that the main investors "don't actually have the money".

The world's richest man was an early investor in OpenAI and has long been in a feud with its founder Sam Altman, who called the Tesla founder's comments "wrong".

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