Alibaba plans revenue share for users of Qwen open-source model

Some smart computer programs, called AI models, are like helpful robots that companies can use to build apps.

Alibaba, a very big company in China, makes one called Qwen.

Alibaba now plans to ask big companies that use Qwen to share some of the money they earn from it.

Another Chinese company, Moonshot, already does this with its model called Kimi K3.

If a business makes more than $20 million in a year using Kimi K3, it must make a special deal with Moonshot.

Moonshot can take up to 30% of that money.

This way of giving something away free but charging heavy users is called a 'freemium' model.

Some American companies, like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, keep their AI models secret instead of sharing them.

There is also a big argument: America says Moonshot copied Anthropic's technology, but China says that is not true.

Companies like DigitalOcean, Together AI and Fireworks AI make money by helping customers use models like Kimi K3 well.