Alibaba plans revenue-sharing for commercial users of next Qwen AI model - Reuters

Alibaba Group (HK:9988) is set to introduce a revenue-sharing requirement for major commercial users of its next-generation Qwen open-source artificial intelligence model, Reuters reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Chinese technology giant plans to ask large users of its upcoming Qwen3.8-Max model to share a portion of revenue generated from the model when deployed commercially, the report said.

The move mirrors a licensing approach adopted by Chinese AI startup Moonshot, whose recently released Kimi K3 model requires companies generating more than $20 million in annual sales from the software to negotiate commercial agreements.

Reuters reported that Moonshot can seek revenue shares of up to 30% under some arrangements.

The planned change would mark a shift in Alibaba's approach to monetising its open-source AI offerings. Until now, the company has charged developers using its models through Alibaba Cloud while generally allowing customers to deploy open-source models in their own data centres without payment, according to the Reuters report.

The strategy highlights how Chinese AI developers are adopting "freemium" business models, offering open-source models at little or no cost while charging enterprises for large-scale commercial use, as they compete with U.S. AI leaders including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

Alibaba has not publicly disclosed the planned revenue-sharing terms, and the percentage under discussion remains unclear, the report added.