Smartphone giant HONOR and tech conglomerate Alibaba have entered into a landmark partnership following the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement in Hangzhou, China. The ceremony was attended by HONOR Device Co., Ltd. CEO James Li and Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu.

The agreement lays the foundation for a broad collaboration across artificial intelligence, with the two companies combining strengths to push forward AI ecosystems, large-scale models, and next-generation intelligent services. Their shared ambition is to drive AI-powered transformation across industries while bringing intelligent device ecosystems closer together.

Under the deal, HONOR and Alibaba will focus on:

• AI Agent Ecosystems – pooling expertise in AI agents, large models, and intelligent services to improve real-world applications in navigation, tourism, e-commerce, entertainment, and lifestyle services.
• AI Models & Capabilities – co-developing solutions using Alibaba’s open-source Qwen model, aiming for seamless “cloud-device integration” with HONOR’s hardware and operating systems. This effort targets smarter, more personalized, and secure experiences for HONOR MagicOS users.
• Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) – advancing performance across text, multimodal, image, video, and voice AI. Joint training and fine-tuning will accelerate the creation of state-of-the-art on-device models.

Looking forward, HONOR and Alibaba plan to integrate more of Alibaba’s services—such as Ele.me for food delivery, Damai for ticketing, and Taopiaopiao for movies—into HONOR’s AI ecosystem. Through Alibaba’s Multi-Cloud Platform (MCP), these vertical AI agents will expand intelligent service scenarios for users.

The partnership also sets the stage for the upcoming HONOR Magic8 Series, promoted as the company’s most powerful AI-native smartphone. The device will showcase many of the AI-driven features developed under this cooperation, embedding intelligent technologies more deeply into everyday life.