Alibaba Reportedly Plans Revenue Share for Next Qwen Model

Alibaba is reportedly planning a new monetization strategy for its upcoming open-weight Qwen model. The company may charge large commercial users a percentage of the revenue generated from the model's deployment. Negotiations are ongoing, and the specific revenue share percentage has not yet been finalized.

Currently, Alibaba charges customers who host and use its models through Alibaba Cloud. Users running most of its open models in their own data centers typically do not pay model fees.

This reported plan would extend Alibaba's monetization approach to commercial uses outside its proprietary cloud platform. Such a model could represent a new revenue stream for companies developing large open-source AI models.

The company is reportedly aiming to introduce this new revenue-sharing model as early as next week, though details remain subject to ongoing discussions.