Apple has introduced a guide enabling Chinese Mac users to connect Alibaba’s Qwen AI service to Siri and Writing Tools, marking a significant move to localise its AI capabilities amid mounting competition and slipping market share in China.
Apple has published instructions showing how eligible Mac users in mainland China can connect Alibaba’s Qwen artificial-intelligence service to Siri and Apple’s Writing Tools, a move that could give the company a more localised route into one of its most important and most contested markets. The guide says the feature is available only on Macs running macOS 26.6 or later and only if users activate the extension and sign in to a Qwen account.
The arrangement matters because Apple has been losing ground in China’s PC market as domestic rivals push their own AI features. According to Omdia, Mac shipments in mainland China fell 9% year on year in the first quarter to about 800,000 units, leaving Apple with 9% of the market. Lenovo held 31%, while Huawei rose to 16%, underscoring how aggressively Chinese manufacturers have tied AI functions to their own hardware and software ecosystems.
Apple’s guide says Qwen can give Siri more detailed answers to some requests, including analysis of photos and documents. Writing Tools can also use the service to generate text or images from a description. The company says materials processed through the extension cannot be used by Alibaba to train or improve its models, suggesting Apple is trying to keep tighter control over data use while still adding capabilities that depend on a local partner.
The development follows reports that Apple Intelligence has received regulatory approval for launch in China on the condition that it integrates Alibaba’s Qwen models across Apple’s platforms. TechCrunch reported in July that the planned tie-up would cover iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro software in China, although the newly published guide applies only to Macs. Alibaba has since said Qwen will be incorporated into Apple Intelligence in China, and it this week introduced Qwen3.8-Max, which it described as its most capable model yet. Apple has not said which version will power the Mac extension.
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