Apple has plans to team up with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to bring Apple Intelligence to its devices sold in China, and Washington D.C. officials are not pleased, according to a report from The New York Times.
While both Trumo’s White House and members of Congress are expressing concerns about Apple’s partnering with Alibaba, the alifornia firm sees the deal as the best way to bring its AI to China, remaining competitive in the Communist country. The Times report says China accounts for around 20% of Apple’s global sales.
China requires Apple to partner with a Chinese AI firm to power Apple Intelligence in the country, as the Beijing government bans any forgeign AI systems from being used in the country. This means the usual chatbot providers, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, are not allowed to operate inside People’s Republic of China (PRC) borders.
Apple core Apple Intelligence features rely on the Cupertino firm’s own AI large language models (LLMs), as well as ChatGPT for expanded resources beyond Apple’s current capabilities. This has forced Apple to seek out a partnership with a Chinese AI partner. Before being allowed to offer Apple Intelligence inside PRC broders, its LLMs will need to be approved by the Chinese government.
U.S. officials have expressed concern over any such AI deal with China, as it would allow China to be even more competitive with U.S. AI companies. There are also concerns that an Apple/China deal would require the iPhone maker to imosie censorship on any AI results in China and shares data about users with the PRC government.
Apple needs to bring Apple Intelligence to China as soon as possible, as it is facing falling sales of its iPhone in the PRC as it lacks AI features in the country.
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says there are “serious concerns” that the deal will allow Alibaba to collect data to allow it to refine its AI models.
Krishnamoorthi also says Apple would be turning “a blind eye” to the fundamental human and privacy rights of Chinese iPhone users.
The Apple/Alibaba partnership has reportedly submitted their AI features to government regulators in China for approval. No one knows how long the approval process will take.
Apple also held discussions with several other China-based AI firms, including DeepSeek, Baidu, and Tencent.
