Alibaba plans to charge heavy commercial users of its upcoming Qwen3.8-Max open-source model a share of their revenue. Sources indicate the company could announce this policy shift as early as next week.
The move marks a pivot from Alibaba's current strategy of providing free access for on-premise data center use. This strategy mirrors Chinese AI startup Moonshot, which requires commercial agreements for its Kimi K3 model.
Moonshot targets companies generating over $20 million in annual revenue from the service. These agreements can include a revenue share of up to 30%. Alibaba is still discussing specific revenue-sharing terms as Chinese AI firms shift toward freemium monetization models.