The Chinese conglomerate Alibaba is considering implementing a charging model focused on the next generation of its open source artificial intelligence system, known worldwide as Qwen. This new strategic guideline, released in the first days of August, exclusively targets large corporations and reflects a growing trend in the Asian technology market, resembling the commercial steps already taken by competitor Moonshot AI. The decision comes at a crucial time for the industry, where the sky-high costs of cloud processing and training large language models require new sources of funding to support ongoing research.

The transition marks a significant turnaround in the Asian giant’s distribution philosophy, which now plans to introduce contracts based on a revenue sharing system. In practice, organizations that use the tool to generate substantial profits in their commercial operations will have a contractual obligation to pass on a portion of these profits directly to the software developer. Experts familiar with internal negotiations point out that this approach seeks to balance the incentive for open innovation with the need for a financial return on billion-dollar investments made in infrastructure.

On the same topic: Alibaba’s new policy demands part of profits from companies using Qwen AI

Financial details and transfer percentages are still being defined

To date, the artificial intelligence models provided by the company can be downloaded free of charge and run on users’ own private servers in the vast majority of application scenarios. However, this dynamic of unrestricted free access for the high-performance corporate sector will come to an end with the official launch of the Qwen3.8-Max version, which will bring the new licensing format embedded in its terms of use.

• The technology corporation plans to collect a percentage of the financial gains obtained by brands that integrate the new model into their final products or automated services.
• Although the details of contractual execution are not yet public, industry sources guarantee that the clauses will follow a standard very close to that recently adopted by Moonshot AI.
• Documents circulating in the market suggest that the Chinese startup Moonshot AI may demand up to thirty percent of the revenue from its commercial partners who use the Kimi K3 system, although the creator of the tool has not officially validated this metric.
• In the specific case of Alibaba, the exact rate that will be applied to the revenue of client companies remains undefined, while rounds of negotiations progress behind the company’s scenes.

The business format that is now gaining traction among artificial intelligence developers in China is already a widely consolidated strategy in the North American technology ecosystem, where Silicon Valley giants adopt similar tactics. Within this commercial modality, pricing only affects large-scale applications, requiring corporate customers to pay specific amounts to guarantee priority access to critical updates, greater processing capacity and specialized system support.

In addition to charging for central use, the monetization plan must encompass the offering of additional services and tools aimed at the more complex implementation of technology in mission-critical business environments. In return, the academic community, independent researchers, freelance programmers and the general public will maintain the right to access the platform free of charge, ensuring that scientific advancement and personal use do not depend on the purchase of restrictive commercial licenses.