Alibaba unveils its most capable AI model, rivals Moonshot in trillion-parameter race

Alibaba just dropped what it calls one of the most powerful AI systems on the planet. The model, Qwen3.8-Max, carries 2.4 trillion parameters and landed on July 19, barely two days after Moonshot AI unveiled its own heavyweight contender, Kimi K3, with 2.8 trillion parameters. Alibaba owns roughly 36% of Moonshot AI after pouring approximately $800 million into the company back in February 2024. So in a sense, Alibaba is competing with its own portfolio company. The details behind Alibaba’s new AI flagship Qwen3.8-Max is available immediately through Alibaba Cloud’s Token Plan and Qoder platforms. During the preview phase, Alibaba is offering the model at a 90% discount. The model reportedly positions itself as the runner-up to Anthropic’s Fable 5, which places it squarely in the top tier of global AI systems. Alibaba’s open-source Qwen model family has been gaining serious traction since its initial launch in 2023. The company claims approximately one million downloads per day across its open-source Qwen variants. Moonshot AI, founded in March 2023, rocketed to a $2.5 billion valuation after Alibaba’s investment. Its Kimi K3 model, which edges out Qwen3.8-Max in raw parameter coun...