BEIJING, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group ( BABA ) announced on Thursday a multi-year partnership with the National Basketball Association to provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services.

Under the agreement, Alibaba will develop applications to enhance fan experiences on the NBA app in China, while NBA China will leverage Alibaba's technologies including a proprietary AI model based on the Qwen series of foundational models, the company said in a statement.

The partnership also designates Alibaba Cloud as an official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China. (Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)