Alibaba AI Models Hit 3 Billion Downloads, Passing Meta, Google

Alibaba's Qwen became the world's most-downloaded open AI model—over 3 billion downloads in six months—eclipsing Google (≈418M) and Meta (≈227M).
Alibaba has open-sourced 460+ Qwen models and fostered 300,000+ derivatives, pushing adoption by distributing them via its cloud across Southeast Asia and Africa.
The rise of Qwen is spurring competition: US players like Meta and Nvidia are releasing new open models as the US–China AI race heats up.