China's AI Push Could Create Alternative Global Tech Stack, Alibaba Among Key Domestic Players

Chinese AI push forces global tech-stack rethink, Alibaba among key domestic players

BEIJING — Analysts say China’s rapid advance in artificial intelligence is reshaping the global technology landscape and positioning domestic firms such as Alibaba as central builders of an alternative tech stack that could see wide international adoption within five to ten years. Rory Green, chief China economist at TS Lombard, tells CNBC that most of the world’s population could be running on a Chinese tech stack in that timeframe, as Chinese firms race to develop AGI, scale homegrown AI chips and release competitive models. Alibaba is part of that push: its Qwen family of models and technical leadership are cited by peers acknowledging both progress and the remaining gaps with U.S. frontrunners.

The push combines strengths in model efficiency, inference techniques and infrastructure growth, analysts say, enabling strong performance at lower compute cost than some Western counterparts. Bloomberg reports an energy expansion that adds more power capacity in China over the past four years than the U.S. has in total, a boost that Paul Triolo of DGA‑Albright Stonebridge says will aid diffusion by powering data centres and other AI infrastructure. Chinese labs are also increasingly releasing open‑weight or open‑source models, eroding Western dominance and potentially accelerating exportable, locally built stacks that include software, services and chips.

Constraints remain significant, however, and are shaping how Alibaba and rivals pursue scale. Export controls that limit access to advanced Nvidia GPUs create a hard ceiling on raw compute for many Chinese developers, and firms openly acknowledge the disadvantage: DeepSeek flags compute shortfalls versus closed‑source frontier models such as Google’s Gemini 3, and an Alibaba Qwen technical lead estimates less than a 20% chance a Chinese firm will surpass U.S. giants on AI in the next three to five years. Analysts also warn of supply‑chain bottlenecks, talent shortages and nascent software ecosystems, meaning broader international uptake will depend on geopolitics, standards and commercial competitiveness in coming years.

Other developments

In unrelated tech policy news, New York Governor Kathy Hochul withdraws a proposal to allow robotaxis to operate outside New York City. Reporting on the move provides few specifics about affected companies, operational limits or the rationale for withdrawal.

Observers say the lacking detail leaves open questions about whether the decision is a temporary pause or a longer policy reversal and call for follow‑up reporting to identify stakeholders, safety data and the potential economic impact.