Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker’s generative artificial intelligence offering, arrives in China. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that China’s regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, approved Apple’s artificial intelligence services in the country, thanks to a deal to integrate Alibaba’s Qwen AI model into Apple’s operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS.

The deal, which was rumored to be in the works last year, marks an important step for Apple’s AI ambitions in a key market. In the second quarter, Apple’s sales in Greater China increased 28% to $20.5 billion. Apple also recently regained second position in China’s smartphone market after a recent shopping festival offered discounts on the iPhone lineup.

Before working with Alibaba, Apple was reportedly exploring a deal with Baidu, but had trouble adapting its models to Chinese customers. It also explored integrations with DeepSeek and with ByteDance models, according to reports. This caused delays in the arrival of Apple Intelligence features, which debuted in 2024, to the Chinese market.

Alibaba confirmed the company’s news to CNBC in a statement, saying that Qwen would be “integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences,” but did not provide a timeline. He also said the integrations would involve artificial intelligence capabilities such as “text and image understanding and generation.”

Alibaba’s U.S. shares rose 4% in premarket trading following news of the deal and are now up more than 6%, as of press time.