Alibaba confirms that Apple’s deal brings AI capabilities to the iPhone in China

Alibaba on Thursday Confirmed Recent Reports The partnership with APIING will provide AI capabilities to iPhones sold in China. This transaction is important for Apple as iPhone sales are falling sharply in the world’s largest smartphone market. According to Apple’s mobile phones fell 11% year-on-year in China Latest revenue report.

Apple “speaks with many Chinese companies,” Alibaba chairman Joseph Tsai said at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Thursday. “In the end, they chose to do business with us. They want to use our AI to drive phones. It’s a great honor to do business with a great company like Apple. I think so.”

According to reports, Apple’s I used to treat it as a Chinese Baidu. I’m suffering from problems adapting Search Giant’s AI offering. Apple is also believed to have investigated partnerships with Bytedance and Deepseek before settling on Alibaba. These types of partnerships are important for US companies like Apple, as Apple works in China for regulatory approval. Both Alibaba and Apple reportedly submitted related materials to local governments.

Prior to the company’s latest revenue calls, CEO Tim Cook cited the absence of its internally generated AI solution, Apple Intelligence, as a contributor to the slowing international sales.

“In the December quarter, we found that the market that deployed Apple Intelligence was stronger in the iPhone 16 family than in the market that did not deploy Apple Intelligence,” executive director He told CNBC.

The company has deposited its bank with Apple Intelligence to promote its next major iPhone “supercycle.” This is the term referring to a dramatic increase in device sales. As Google continues to offer new Gemini features using Samsung phones, Pixel devices and various other Android products, Apple’s speed and strategy when deploying its own AI solutions will hinder growth Ta.

The increased domestic competition is also digging Apple’s share of the Chinese market. Vivo took the lead in the fourth quarter last year. figure From the research company, Canary’s. Seeing a massive rebound following the initial Trump administration sanctions, Huawei increased shipments by 37% year-on-year and achieved the second-place finish with a 16% market share. Apple, which led 24% of the market at the same time last year, fell to 15%, bringing the fever of third place deaths with Xiaomi and Oppo.

Apple has banked Alibaba transactions to help get back some of its Market, but even if the partnership passes regulatory scrutiny, Apple’s China Future is not clear. Tariffs and trade tensions could further affect sales in key markets.

The company is particularly comfortable with Donald Trump during the second term of the president. The chef was donated $1 million to Trump’s first committee in January. Recently, Apple followed Google’s lead by renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the US Gulf With the map app.

TechCrunch contacts Apple for additional comment on its Alibaba transaction.