BEIJING, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Chinese technology company

Alibaba ( BABA ) released on Thursday new open-source

artificial intelligence models and text-to-video AI technology,

intensifying its efforts to compete in the booming area of

generative AI.

The open-source models, numbering more than 100, come from

Alibaba's ( BABA ) Qwen 2.5 family, its latest foundational large

language model released in May.

Chinese technology companies, like their U.S. counterparts,

have been investing heavily in generative AI, with firms racing

to develop robust product portfolios and diversified offerings.

While competitors such as Baidu ( BIDU ) and OpenAI have

primarily adopted closed-source approaches, Alibaba ( BABA ) has embraced

a hybrid model, investing in both proprietary and open-source

development to broaden its AI product range.

Its new models range from 0.5 to 72 billion parameters - the

variables that determine an AI model's capability and

performance - in size, offering proficiency in mathematics,

coding, and support for over 29 languages, Alibaba ( BABA ) said in a

statement.

The models aim to cater to a wide array of AI applications

across various sectors including automotive, gaming, and

scientific research.

Alibaba ( BABA ) on Thursday also unveiled a new text-to-video model

as part of its Tongyi Wanxiang image generation family, joining

a growing number of Chinese tech firms entering this emerging

market.

The move puts Alibaba ( BABA ) in direct competition with global

players such as OpenAI, which has also shown interest in

text-to-video technology.

In August, ByteDance, owner of TikTok, launched its

text-to-video app Jimeng AI on Apple's ( AAPL ) App Store for

Chinese users.

(Reporting by Liam Mo and Casey Hall; Editing by Muralikumar

Anantharaman)