Alibaba Qwen3.5 AI Agents - February 2026

Alibaba Qwen3.5 Unleashes AI Agents as China chatbot race intensifies

Alibaba has released Qwen3.5, its latest large language model series that combines traditional LLM capabilities with advanced, dynamic reasoning. The release marks a significant shift in China's AI landscape as companies pivot from pure chatbot functionality to AI agents that can independently execute multi-step tasks.

Open-Weight Model with Agent Capabilities

Qwen3.5 comes in an open-weight version, allowing developers to download, run, fine-tune, and deploy the model on their own infrastructure. Alibaba also released a hosted version, Qwen-3.5-Plus, running on its cloud platform Model Studio.

The model was released on Monday, February 17th, just before Chinese New Year, and features:

•397 billion parameters — though fewer than its predecessor, with significantly improved performance
•Native multimodal capabilities — understands text, images, and video within a single system
•201 languages and dialects — up from 82 in the previous generation
•Agentic capabilities — compatible with open-source AI agents like OpenClaw

Performance on Par with Western Leaders

Alibaba claims Qwen3.5's performance is on par with leading models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, based on self-reported benchmark evaluations. The company says the model offers improvements in both performance and cost efficiency.

Marc Einstein, research director at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC that AI companies are preparing for the possibility that AI agents could "upend traditional Internet business models." He noted that Chinese AI companies are acutely aware that "the consequences for those who are not prepared will be severe."

Global Ambitions Amid intensifying competition

The release comes amid a flurry of AI model launches in China this week. ByteDance and Zhipu AI have also released upgraded models focused on agent capabilities. This competition reflects the broader industry shift toward AI agents — systems that can take independent actions and complete complex tasks with minimal supervision.

The expanded language support (201 languages, up from 82) signals Alibaba's global ambitions. Lin Junyang, technical lead of Alibaba Cloud's Qwen team, indicated that more open-weight models will be released throughout the Chinese New Year period.

What This Means for Developers

With Qwen3.5's open-weight availability, developers can:

•Run the model locally for privacy-sensitive applications
•Fine-tune on domain-specific datasets
•Integrate agent capabilities into custom workflows
•Deploy on-premises or in private cloud environments

The model's compatibility with OpenClaw and other open-source agents positions it as a viable alternative for developers building autonomous AI systems.