Will Alibaba have the best Chinese AI model at the end of October 2026?

Analysis

Xiaomi's MiMo-V2.6-Pro ranks 11th on the Arena Text Overall leaderboard with a score of 1491. Alibaba's best entry, Qwen3.8-Max, is 15th at 1483. That is from the published leaderboard data dated October 20, 2026, read on October 21, with style control off. The ordering is by rank first, so Xiaomi currently holds the top Chinese spot and Alibaba would need to overtake it by the October 31 check at 12:00 PM ET. That is why the forecast leans against Alibaba finishing first. Alibaba is not without a case. One news report from October 19 said Qwen3.8-Max had immediately become the highest-ranking Chinese model for text tasks. That reflects an earlier reading, and the current leaderboard data shows Xiaomi ahead. A separate weekly ranking write-up, dated October 19, covered a different week and listed Moonshot's Kimi K3 Max above Alibaba's model, so it is context only. The race is also tight. Moonshot's Kimi K3 (Max) is 24th at 1476, 7 points behind Qwen3.8-Max. Alibaba also has several other models listed, including Qwen3.7-Max-Preview at 1475. Reports say Alibaba released Qwen3.8-Flash this week and has Qwen 4 in training, but a preview release is not a leaderboard result. Watch for any new Alibaba model entering the board before October 31. A score above Xiaomi's 1491 would change the picture.