Alibaba Group's release of an artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning model, which it said was on par with global hit DeepSeek's R1, drove its Hong Kong-listed shares more than 8% higher on Thursday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba Group surged more than 8% on Thursday following the release of a new reasoning model that the company said was on par with global hit DeepSeek's R1.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s stock surged the most in weeks after taking the wraps off a model that it claims performs as well as DeepSeek with just a fraction of the data required.

It reflects the broader competitiveness of China’s frontier AI ecosystem,” says Scott Singer, a visiting scholar in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. rose more than 8% today following the company’s release of a reasoning model with performance comparable to DeepSeek-R1. The new model, QwQ-32B, was open-sourced on Wednesday.

B, its latest artificial intelligence reasoning model, claiming it outperforms OpenAI and Chinese startup DeepSeek. Following the announcement, Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares closed 8% higher, boosting the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index.

New AI contender. Chinese companies are continuing to make big strides in artificial intelligence, as Alibaba unveiled its latest reasoning model with fewer parameters than existi