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Alibaba Cloud plans to open-source 2.4 trillion-parameter Qwen3.8 AI model

Alibaba Cloud plans to open-source 2.4 trillion-parameter Qwen3.8 AI model

At Shanghai’s major AI convention, Moonshot AI and Alibaba escalated China’s model race as Alibaba unveiled Qwen3.8-Max-Preview and said a full open-source release is expected soon.

Fact Check
The official Alibaba Group X account confirms Qwen3.8-Max-Preview at 2.4 trillion parameters launched 2026-07-19. PANews primary reporting confirms the same parameter count and that the full version will be released soon and open-sourced, along with the Token Plan personal-edition launch and discount terms described in the claim. Secondary sources (KuCoin, buildfastwithai) corroborate the launch and the stated open-source intent, while noting the open-weight release and performance claims are not yet independently verified. The claim's core facts — the preview launch, 2.4T parameters, and planned open-sourcing — are well supported.
Summary

Alibaba’s Qwen team unveiled Qwen3.8-Max-Preview on July 19, describing the 2.4 trillion-parameter system as its most capable model yet and saying it trails only Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5. The preview is available through Alibaba’s Qoder and QoderWork coding platforms, with a full release and open-source publication of the model’s weights expected soon. The launch came amid intensifying competition among Chinese AI developers highlighted at a major Shanghai AI convention, where Moonshot AI had released its 2.8 trillion-parameter Kimi K3 model two days earlier and Alibaba later said its own new release had surpassed it. Alibaba did not publish training data size or independent benchmark scores beyond the parameter count, so its performance claims remain based on the company’s statements pending outside testing after the weights are published. Alibaba is also expanding commercial access through its Token Plan personal and team tiers with listed subscription pricing and promotional Credits discounts. Separately, according to TechNode, Alibaba is set to serve as a technology partner for Apple Intelligence in China alongside Baidu after approval from China’s Cyberspace Administration, potentially broadening Qwen’s reach among iPhone users in the country.

Terms & Concepts
  • open-source: Making a model’s weights or code publicly available so others can inspect, use or build on it.
  • parameters: The learned internal values in an AI model that help determine how it performs tasks.
  • Qwen3.8-Max-Preview: A preview version of Alibaba’s 2.4 trillion-parameter Qwen3.8 model released for early developer access.