Chinese tech giant Alibaba has announced its latest AI reasoning model, QwQ-32B, which rivals cutting-edge models like DeepSeek-R1. The company’s shares surged 8.39% after the announcement, hitting a new 52-week high.
The new model operates with 32 billion parameters, significantly fewer than DeepSeek’s 671 billion parameters. Alibaba’s QwQ-32B achieved “impressive results” and has the potential to improve performance in math and coding. The company’s cloud Intelligence unit was a key contributor to its sharp profit hike in the December quarter.
The racing to develop more efficient AI models is driven by growing demand for optimized AI that consumes fewer resources. Optimism surrounding AI developments could lead to large gains for Alibaba stock, setting the company on a more upwardly-pointing earnings trajectory.
Analysts believe the pace of innovation is incredibly fast, and this trend will drive down costs and improve access to users. As efficiency increases, the training era is giving way to the consumption of AI, which will exponentially increase its volume. This shift has significant implications for companies like Alibaba, DeepSeek, and OpenAi, as they navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of large language models.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/alibaba-shares-soar-after-chinese-tech-giant-unveils-deepseek-rival-qwq-32b.html