Apple poached Alibaba's original open-source Qwen team while lobbying Washington for permission to buy memory chips from blacklisted Chinese firms. The China strategy is going full send. Robert Scoble, an ex-Microsoft veteran turned AI analyst, broke the hiring news, though nobody has independently verified it. The goal is presumably juicing Siri AI for Chinese users via Qwen under Apple Intelligence.
On the hardware side, Apple is pushing the Trump administration to clear DRAM purchases from CXMT, which sits on the Pentagon's blacklist over ties to China's military. Mark Gurman reported the company is working to minimize political blowback if it procures from CXMT and YMTC for devices destined for China.
And on the AI front, Alibaba is prepping Qwen3.8, which should outclass Kimi K3 and trail only Anthropic's Fable 5. The revamped Siri lives inside the Dynamic Island, handles on-screen context, and processes voice-driven Reminders. Open-source models are clearly eating the industry alive, and Apple just grabbed a front-row seat.
On the hardware side, Apple is pushing the Trump administration to clear DRAM purchases from CXMT, which sits on the Pentagon's blacklist over ties to China's military. Mark Gurman reported the company is working to minimize political blowback if it procures from CXMT and YMTC for devices destined for China.
And on the AI front, Alibaba is prepping Qwen3.8, which should outclass Kimi K3 and trail only Anthropic's Fable 5. The revamped Siri lives inside the Dynamic Island, handles on-screen context, and processes voice-driven Reminders. Open-source models are clearly eating the industry alive, and Apple just grabbed a front-row seat.
