Alibaba’s Qwen tops Hugging Face with 3 billion downloads

Alibaba Group Holding's Qwen family of artificial intelligence models has surged to become the most downloaded open AI model ecosystem, surpassing major US companies and domestic competitors. Alibaba reported that more than 3 billion downloads have been recorded globally over the past six months, indicating the significant influence of Qwen. This growth has been fueled by the release of over 460 open-source models and an ecosystem that has generated more than 300,000 derivative models.

The Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform, reported that Google, owned by Alphabet, had approximately 418 million downloads in 2026, while Meta Platforms accumulated about 227 million downloads. Alibaba's Qwen has also expanded its reach beyond China by distributing the model through its cloud business to enterprise customers in Southeast Asia and Africa. This expansion provides Qwen with access to international developers and businesses, further solidifying its position in the global AI market.

Competition in open AI models is intensifying as Chinese companies aim to narrow the gap with closed AI systems developed by US firms like OpenAI and Anthropic. In response, Meta and Nvidia have also released new open AI models, intensifying the competition for developers and the ecosystems they create. Alibaba's Qwen is positioned as an accessible and cost-effective option for developers seeking customizable and fine-tuned AI models, particularly in the burgeoning markets of Southeast Asia and Africa.