There’s been an escalation in the generative AI large language model “wars” as Alibaba Qwen 2.5 launched Wednesday. This latest AI salvo from China-based Alibaba is directly aimed at its in-country rival DeepSeek, which launched its own AI--DeepSeek-V3--in December 2024 and its R1 version in mid-January.

Analysts say China’s AI investment is just beginning to pay off, with more firms expected to launch their own models soon.

In an unexpected move on the first day of Lunar New Year, Chinese tech giant Alibaba announced its latest AI model, Qwen 2.5-Max, claiming it outperforms several leading models including the recently released DeepSeek-V3.