Alibaba Shares Spike In Hong Kong As Tech Giant Takes Aim At DeepSeek's Disruption And Baidu's Ernie Turbo Models With Qwen 3 Launch

On Tuesday, Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd (NYSE:BABA) introduced Qwen 3, its most advanced artificial intelligence model yet.

What Happened: The new system features hybrid reasoning capabilities, blending traditional AI tasks with enhanced problem-solving skills, reported Reuters.

The launch comes on the heels of Baidu Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BIDU) release of Ernie 4.5 Turbo and Ernie X1 Turbo.

In January 2025, the e-commerce giant quickly rolled out its Qwen 2.5-Max model, just days after DeepSeek's announcement, touting it as a higher-performing alternative.

Notably, at the time of writing, Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares spiked 1.13% to HKD 116.50 ($15.02).

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Why It's Important: The latest launch comes amid intensifying competition in China’s AI sector, fueled by the breakout success of local startup DeepSeek earlier this year.

Following the debut of DeepSeek's R1 model, Nvidia Corporation's (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock experienced a sharp sell-off, wiping out around $600 billion in market value. The stock has since recovered a significant portion of those losses.

Price Action: Alibaba shares rose 0.54% in after-hours trading to $119.01. Earlier, during Monday's regular session, the stock fell 1.59% to close at $118.37, according to Benzinga Pro.

According to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings, Alibaba has a growth score of 73.17% and a momentum rating of 93.35. Click here to see how it compares to other leading tech companies.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.