BMW to use Alibaba's AI for cars in China

Alibaba (9988) and BMW will team up to produce AI for cars in China, as the tech giant looks to monetize its emerging products and the German automaker seeks to catch up to local brands that are dominating the key market.

BMW will adopt AI cockpit technology from Alibaba-backed Banma for its upcoming models tailored for the Chinese market, the companies said in a joint statement.

Banma's technology is the product of collaboration with Alibaba's own Qwen model team.

BMW, which relies on China as a major market, saw sales of its namesake brand and Mini fall 13.4 percent there last year and expects deliveries to remain muted this year.

To better compete, Alibaba will help BMW build a new intelligent personal assistant with enhanced voice recognition and trip planning features that will be rolled out next year in new models produced in China.

The in-car AI agent can offer parking and nearby restaurant recommendations as well as real-time traffic light information.

Alibaba said its Qwen model has been used in cars produced by Chinese automakers XPeng (9868), Zeekr and Leapmotor (9863).

Separately, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook visited China's artificial intelligence hub of Hangzhou, the home of AI sensation DeepSeek which shocked the world with its models built at a fraction of the cost of American rivals.

Apple also donated 30 million yuan (HK$32 million) to the city's elite Zhejiang University.

Bloomberg