Alibaba's Open-Source Qwen Models Become Most Downloaded Worldwide, Outpacing Google and Meta

Alibaba Group Holding's Qwen family of open-source AI models surpassed 3 billion downloads worldwide in the last six months, making it the leading open-source language model family globally. The Qwen ecosystem includes over 460 neural networks and more than 300,000 derivative algorithms, according to Alibaba. Hugging Face data shows Google's AI models accumulated 418 million downloads and Meta's models 227 million in the first half of the year. Open-source AI models can be downloaded, customized, and used as a base for new AI products. The popularity of Qwen positions Alibaba's algorithms as a core element of the open AI ecosystem, according to a Hugging Face report. Qwen has become part of the standard workflow for developers deciding which models to fine-tune and deploy. Alibaba strengthens this cycle by distributing Qwen through its cloud platform for enterprise clients in Southeast Asia and Africa. Chinese developers, including Qwen, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek, offer advanced performance aiming to close the gap with closed models from US companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.