Shares of two Chinese tech heavyweights were gaining in Hong Kong on Thursday. They had Apple to thank.

The Cyberspace Administration of China on Wednesday added Apple to its list of approved generative artificial-intelligence providers, clearing the company to compete alongside domestic offerings from Huawei and Xiaomi.

The iPhone has cleared a major hurdle by successfully registering its Apple Intelligence technology with the regulator. Beijing generally requires companies to secure clearance before releasing generative AI services to the public.

The iPhone maker first submitted several Apple Intelligence features for review in China in early 2025, following nearly a year of development alongside e-commerce giant Alibaba and the country's dominant search provider, Baidu.

Apple has sought local partners to launch its AI services in China, where models from foreign developers like OpenAI and Alphabet-owned Google aren't officially available.

That effort is now bearing fruit. Following the close of U.S. markets on Wednesday, Alibaba announced that its AI model, Qwen, will be integrated into Apple Intelligence across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro.

Baidu separately confirmed that it was working with Apple on AI features for iPhones. While Apple Intelligence relies on Google and OpenAI for search at home, it will use Baidu's technology to power those services in China.

U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba and Baidu rose 1.1% and 3.1%, respectively, in premarket trading Thursday. They fared even better in Hong Kong, where both stocks gained around 3%.

China is widely regarded as the world's most competitive smartphone market. The regulatory clearance comes as Apple looks to regain market share in the country and close the gap with Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo, all of which have rapidly deployed AI features across their devices.

Apple shares were up 0.4% in the premarket.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

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July 16, 2026 08:13 ET (12:13 GMT)

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