BEIJING, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Alibaba ( BABA ) will

release an open-source version of its video and image-generating

artificial intelligence model, Wan 2.1, the Chinese tech giant

said in a post on X on Tuesday.

The company will give full details in a recorded video at 11

p.m. (1500 GMT), a spokesperson said.

The release of the model comes as competition intensifies in

China's AI market, following DeepSeek's launch of its latest

open-source models last month. Those models have shaken the

global AI industry by delivering performance comparable to

leading products from companies like OpenAI, which has shifted

towards closed-source offerings.

Alibaba ( BABA ) initially introduced its latest version of video and

image-generating AI model in January, later renaming it Wan from

Wanx, touting the model's ability to generate highly realistic

visuals.

In a previous statement, Alibaba ( BABA ) highlighted its top ranking

on VBench, a leaderboard for video generative models, where it

leads in key dimensions such as multi-object interactions.

On Tuesday, Alibaba ( BABA ) released a preview version of its

reasoning model, QwQ-Max, which it plans to make open source

upon the official release of the full version, which is expected

soon.

Earlier this week, Alibaba ( BABA ) announced plans to invest at

least 380 billion yuan ($52 billion) over the next three years

to bolster its cloud computing and AI infrastructure.