Alibaba Group Holding’s Qwen family of artificial intelligence models has emerged as the world’s most downloaded open AI model ecosystem, recording more than 3 billion downloads globally over the past six months.
The Chinese technology giant said the figure has helped Qwen overtake major US technology companies and domestic competitors in the open-model race.
According to the open-source AI platform Hugging Face, Google, which is owned by Alphabet, recorded about 418 million downloads in 2026, while Meta Platforms had 227 million.
Alibaba said Qwen has also released more than 460 open-source models, while its ecosystem has generated over 300,000 derivative models.
Qwen expands its developer ecosystem
Open-weight models can be downloaded and modified by developers, who can then use them as the foundation for new applications or customised AI systems. As a result, downloads and derivative models have increasingly become indicators of the influence and adoption of AI technologies.
Qwen’s rapid growth highlights the increasing reach of Chinese AI models beyond their domestic market. Alibaba has positioned Qwen as an accessible and relatively inexpensive option for developers seeking models that can be customised and fine-tuned.
The company is competing with Chinese AI firms such as DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax, while also challenging US-developed models. The Hugging Face report described Qwen as one of the largest foundations of the open AI ecosystem and said the model family has increasingly become part of developers’ workflows when selecting systems for fine-tuning and deployment.
A large ecosystem can also create a cycle of wider adoption. As more developers use a model, additional versions and applications are created, potentially attracting even more users.
Alibaba takes Qwen beyond China
Alibaba has strengthened this network by distributing Qwen through its cloud business to enterprise customers in markets including Southeast Asia and Africa. This gives the model family access to international developers and businesses.
The expansion comes as competition over open AI models intensifies globally. Chinese companies are seeking to narrow the gap with closed AI systems developed by US firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
US technology companies are also responding to the growing popularity of open models. Meta and Nvidia have released new open AI models in recent weeks as technology companies compete increasingly for developers and the ecosystems they create.
