Pakistan TV

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar has said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif&rsquo;s initiative during a meeting at Alibaba Group headquarters in Hangzhou led to a landmark strategic framework agreement, marking a major breakthrough in Pakistan&rsquo;s digital and economic cooperation with China. Speaking exclusively to Pakistan TV in Beijing, Tarar said the prime minister&rsquo;s interaction with Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai resulted in an unexpected yet &ldquo;phenomenal&rdquo; agreement aimed at expanding cooperation in emerging technologies and the digital economy. &ldquo;The prime minister said that, you know, we want this agreement done and very kind of the chairman of Alibaba to actually agree to this,&rdquo; Tarar said, adding that he [Alibaba chairman] instantly said, &ldquo;this is the first time that you&#39;ve said something like this to me and I must comply&rdquo;.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2058769324970782782&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=f4bc3899a446c75907834c1d7315ad5e6569878b&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 648px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" data-tweet-id="2058769324970782782"></iframe></div></div>The minister said Joe Tsai drafted the agreement through their own AI initiative, and the agreement was instantly drafted and printed. &ldquo;There and then that agreement was signed,&rdquo; he added. Tarar said the initiative will also support small and medium enterprises and help modernise key government systems, including digital reforms in institutions such as the Federal Board of Revenue. According to the minister, the Alibaba chairman praised the prime minister&rsquo;s fast-paced working style, referring to it as &ldquo;Sharif Speed&rdquo;.&nbsp; He further claimed that MoUs were also signed on cloud computing, health initiatives, fintech and SME development. Tarar said the developments will open new opportunities for Pakistani youth, particularly in training programmes related to artificial intelligence, IT skills, and digital innovation.&nbsp; He said Chinese investment and collaboration would significantly improve efficiency across multiple sectors in Pakistan. Shifting focus to the broader visit, Tarar said the prime minister&rsquo;s China trip has generated strong interest in both countries, with extensive media coverage and public engagement.&nbsp; He highlighted the growing people-to-people connection between Pakistan and China, especially during the 75th anniversary year of diplomatic relations. He added that the prime minister&rsquo;s engagements in Hangzhou and Beijing, including high-level meetings, business-to-business conferences, and agreements worth billions of dollars, reflect growing economic momentum.&nbsp; Tarar said rising Chinese investment and expanding industrial cooperation demonstrate strong confidence in Pakistan&rsquo;s economic direction, stating that &ldquo;performance speaks for itself&rdquo; amid continued development of bilateral relations.

Economy

Foreign Affairs

Speaking exclusively to Pakistan TV in Beijing, Tarar said the prime minister’s interaction with Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai resulted in an unexpected yet 'phenomenal' agreement aimed at expanding cooperation in emerging technologies and the digital economy.

PM Sharif’s initiative at Alibaba meeting leads to landmark agreement: Tarar

BEIJING: Tech giant Alibaba released on Wednesday a new artificial intelligence chip it said performed three times as well as its predecessor, showcasing growing domestic chipmaker prowess as US titan Nvidia struggles for access to China. Semiconductors have been at the centre of a fierce US-China race for AI supremacy, with Nvidia&#39;s most advanced chips banned from sale in China by Washington over national security concerns. Beijing has in response sought to bolster its self-reliance, pouring resources into promoting its domestic industry and reportedly barring firms from buying Nvidia chips. Alibaba said its new chip, Zhenwu M890, can deliver three times the performance of its predecessor Zhenwu 810E, which is widely believed to match the capabilities of Nvidia&#39;s H20. The H20 is a less powerful version of Nvidia&#39;s AI processing units designed specifically for export to China. A more high-end option, the H200, has been licensed to sell to China from the US side, but its access to the Chinese market appears to have stalled. Zhang Guobin, founder of Chinese specialist website <a data-fr-linked="true" href="//eetrend.com" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">eetrend.com</a>, said the timing of the Alibaba launch is &quot;extremely precise&quot;. &quot;It&#39;s during a window when the prospects of the H200 entering the Chinese market are highly uncertain and Nvidia&#39;s business in China has effectively dropped to zero,&quot; he told AFP. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang was part of a US business delegation that travelled to Beijing with President Donald Trump last week. He said he had not discussed the H200 directly but added &quot;the Chinese government has to decide how much of their local market... they want to protect&quot;. The new Zhenwu M890 chip &quot;provides a reliable option that is insulated from fluctuations in export controls, enabling domestic AI companies to formulate long-term technology roadmaps,&quot; said <a data-fr-linked="true" href="//eetrend.com" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">eetrend.com</a>&#39;s Zhang. &quot;At the very least... (it) proves that in the field of high-end AI computing power, China now has a &#39;Plan B&#39; that does not depend on Nvidia,&quot; he added. However, when it comes to performance, Nvidia still holds its lead. Even the H200 is significantly less advanced than the firm&#39;s top-range chips -- the Blackwell series and forthcoming Rubin processors. Alibaba said to date it has shipped more than 560,000 chips in its Zhenwu series, to over 400 customers, including automakers and financial institutions. The Hangzhou-based tech giant, which runs some of the country&#39;s biggest ecommerce platforms, has accelerated its pivot to AI in recent years. Its open-source Qwen AI model family is popular among developers, surpassing one billion cumulative downloads since its initial launch in 2023.

Artificial Intelligence

Alibaba unveiled a new AI chip claiming triple the performance of its predecessor, highlighting China’s growing semiconductor capabilities as Nvidia faces US export restrictions and declining access to the Chinese market amid intensifying AI competition.

Alibaba unveils new AI chip as Nvidia access remains stalled

Reuters

BEIJING: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced on Wednesday its largest ever artificial intelligence language model, the Qwen3-Max, doubling down on AI as a core business strategy. The model, Alibaba&#39;s most powerful to date, contains more than 1 trillion parameters, or variables that determine how an AI system processes information, and shows particular strength in code generation and autonomous agent capabilities, Zhou Jingren, chief technology officer at Alibaba Cloud, said at the company&#39;s annual conference. Autonomous agent capabilities mean the AI system requires fewer human prompts than a chatbot like ChatGPT, and can make decisions and take action independently towards a goal set by the human user. Alibaba cited third-party benchmarks, such as Tau2-Bench, saying the model outperformed rival products including Anthropic&#39;s Claude and DeepSeek-V3.1 in certain metrics. Alibaba has made AI a priority alongside its traditional e-commerce operations. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to invest 380 billion yuan ($53.40 billion) in AI-related infrastructure over the next three years as competition to develop advanced AI capabilities intensifies among Chinese tech firms. During the conference, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said the company would increase spending further, though he did not specify the amount. &quot;The speed of AI industry development has far exceeded our expectations, and the industry&#39;s demand for AI infrastructure has also far exceeded our expectations,&quot; Wu said. The company released the Qwen 3 model in April. Alibaba also unveiled several other AI products on Wednesday, including Qwen3-Omni, a multimodal, immersive system useful for virtual and artificial reality applications such as smart glasses and intelligent cockpits.

The Alibaba logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. (Reuters)

Qwen3-Max’s autonomous agent capabilities allow it to make decisions and take actions independently with fewer human prompts, setting it apart from typical chatbots.

Articles tagged with "Alibaba"

PM Sharif’s initiative at Alibaba meeting leads to landmark agreement: Tarar

Alibaba unveils new AI chip as Nvidia access remains stalled

Alibaba launches new AI model with more than 1 trillion parameters