Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is accelerating efforts to unlock value across its businesses through breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and global technology expansion.

Qwen3-Max Outperforms Competitors in Crypto Trading Challenge

Its flagship AI model, Qwen3-Max, recently outperformed top U.S. and Chinese rivals in a live crypto trading challenge, while its new reasoning model, Qwen3-Max-Thinking, matched OpenAI’s GPT-5 Pro in global mathematics competitions.

At the same time, Alibaba’s mapping unit, Amap, is expanding internationally to support Chinese automakers entering foreign markets.

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Alibaba’s AI model, Qwen3-Max, dominated a crypto trading experiment hosted by U.S. research firm Nof1, outperforming five rival systems from China and the U.S. by turning a $10,000 investment into a 22.32% gain in just two weeks.

In the “real money, real market” Alpha Arena challenge, Qwen3-Max--tasked with trading cryptocurrency perpetual contracts on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid--was the only model besides China’s DeepSeek V3.1 Chat to post profits.

OpenAI’s GPT-5 Fares Worst

All four U.S. models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind, and Elon Musk’s xAI logged steep losses. OpenAI’s GPT-5 fared worst, plunging 62.66%, SCMP reported Tuesday.

Interestingly, Qwen3-Max achieved its win without “reasoning” capabilities--unlike competitors that simulate step-by-step decision-making. Alibaba has since released a reasoning-enabled version designed for more complex tasks.

Qwen3-Max-Thinking Surpasses Global Competitors

Alibaba unveiled a new AI reasoning model, Qwen3-Max-Thinking, that matched OpenAI’s top-performing GPT-5 Pro in global mathematics competitions.

The upgraded model, developed by Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen team, achieved 100% accuracy in prestigious contests such as the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) 2025 and the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament (HMMT), SCMP reported on Tuesday. These competitions test high-level problem-solving skills in areas like algebra, number theory, and probability.

Qwen3-Max-Thinking builds on Qwen3-Max, which already matched or surpassed major global competitors, including Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4, DeepSeek’s V3.1, xAI’s Grok 4, and OpenAI’s GPT-5 Pro.

Alibaba has made Qwen3-Max-Thinking accessible to users through its web-based Qwen chatbot and Alibaba Cloud’s API platform.

Amap Expands Globally to Support Chinese Automakers

Alibaba’s mapping unit, Amap, is expanding globally to support Chinese automakers entering overseas markets -- a move that could challenge the dominance of Google Maps.

On Monday, Amap launched the international version of its AutoSDK, a software development toolkit that enables carmakers to build in-car navigation and infotainment systems tailored for global markets.

Drawing on partnerships with more than 40 Chinese automakers, Amap said the upgraded toolkit helps brands adapt more easily to different regions, offering tools to customize mapping and navigation features across 170 countries and 19 languages spanning Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South America, SCMP reported on Tuesday.

The rollout comes as China’s car exports surge reaching 4.96 million passenger vehicles in 2024, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers with forecasts suggesting 10 million units sold abroad by 2030.

Alibaba stock is up 94% year-to-date as its cloud unit and AI integration gain traction despite intensifying geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S.

Price Action: Alibaba shares were trading lower by 0.27% to $163.85 premarket at last check Wednesday.

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