Microsoft Denies Taking Control at OpenAI after UK Review

Microsoft logo.
Microsoft logo.
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Microsoft Denies Taking Control at OpenAI after UK Review

Microsoft logo.
Microsoft logo.

Microsoft denied on Friday that it had taken control of OpenAI after Britain's anti-trust regulator said it was reviewing the nature of their partnership.
"The only thing that has changed is that Microsoft will now have a non-voting observer on OpenAI’s Board, which is very different from an acquisition such as Google’s purchase of DeepMind in the UK," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement.
"We will work closely with the CMA to provide all the information it needs," he said.



Alibaba Launches Open-Source AI Coding Model, Touted as Its Most Advanced to Date 

A man walks past the Alibaba logo displayed at its booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China July 16, 2025. (Reuters)
A man walks past the Alibaba logo displayed at its booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China July 16, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

Alibaba Launches Open-Source AI Coding Model, Touted as Its Most Advanced to Date 

A man walks past the Alibaba logo displayed at its booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China July 16, 2025. (Reuters)
A man walks past the Alibaba logo displayed at its booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China July 16, 2025. (Reuters)

Alibaba Group announced on Wednesday the launch of Qwen3-Coder, an open-source artificial intelligence model for software development that the Chinese e-commerce giant described as its most advanced coding tool to date.

The launch comes amid intensifying competition among Chinese technology companies in the global AI development race, with firms on both sides of the Pacific releasing increasingly sophisticated models. Qwen3-Coder is designed for software development tasks such as code generation and managing complex coding workflows, Alibaba said in a statement.

The company positioned the model as particularly strong in "agentic AI coding tasks" - automated processes where AI systems can work independently on programming challenges.

According to performance data released by Alibaba, Qwen3-Coder outperformed domestic competitors, including models from DeepSeek and Moonshot AI's K2 in key coding capabilities.

The company also claimed its model matched the performance of leading US models, including Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT-4 in certain areas.