Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's co-founder and chairman Joe Tsai revealed on Thursday that Alibaba will partner with US tech giant Apple Inc to roll out artificial intelligence features for iPhone users in China.

Tsai made the announcement at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

He stated that Apple required a local partner to provide AI services for its phones in China and had engaged with several Chinese companies before ultimately choosing to do business with Alibaba.

Media reports indicated that Apple had considered models developed by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek but decided against the partnership. The decision was based on DeepSeek's limited manpower and experience to support a large-scale customer base.