Apple has received regulatory approval from the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for its AI suite. The company is the only foreign provider permitted to run generative AI services on iPhones in the country.
The rollout is scheduled for December 2026 as part of the iOS 27.3 update. The initial release will not include the new Siri AI assistant or certain creative tools. Apple will collaborate with local partners to provide core functionality.
Alibaba will provide generative text and image processing capabilities, while Baidu will manage search features. The infrastructure of Alibaba will handle cloud-based queries for the service.
Regulatory filings indicate that upcoming hardware, including the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro, will support these AI features out of the box. The company currently holds the second position in the Chinese smartphone market.
