Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares declined sharply on Thursday following reports that U.S. artificial intelligence company Anthropic had accused operators linked to the Chinese group of improperly extracting capabilities from its Claude AI models.
Alibaba shares fell 5% to HK$94.55 by 02:40 GMT, reaching their lowest level since February 2025. The company’s U.S.-listed shares had also ended Wednesday’s session approximately 3% lower.
Anthropic Details Alleged Claude Campaign
According to a letter Anthropic sent to U.S. senators and White House officials, operators allegedly connected to Alibaba’s Qwen AI division conducted a large and coordinated campaign to bypass restrictions placed on Claude.
The letter, first reported by Bloomberg News, claimed that the operation used almost 25,000 fraudulent accounts.
Between April 22 and June 5, those accounts allegedly generated more than 28.8 million interactions with Anthropic’s Claude models.
Alibaba’s Qwen Unit Linked to Alleged Activity
Anthropic said the activity appeared designed to obtain advanced capabilities from Claude that could then be used to strengthen competing artificial intelligence models.
The company reportedly described the operation involving Alibaba and its Qwen AI unit as the largest known “distillation” campaign directed against Anthropic.
Alibaba had not been independently proven responsible for the alleged activity based on the information presented in the reports.
What Is AI Model Distillation?
AI model distillation is a common development technique in which a smaller artificial intelligence model learns from the responses produced by a larger and more advanced system.
The method itself is widely used across the technology industry. However, disputes can arise when companies believe their proprietary models have been accessed in breach of usage restrictions or contractual terms.
Anthropic’s allegations suggest that the Claude interactions were carried out on a scale intended to reproduce or extract valuable model behaviour.
US-China AI Competition Intensifies
The dispute comes as U.S. authorities increase their scrutiny of Chinese access to advanced American artificial intelligence technologies.
Washington has already introduced restrictions aimed at limiting China’s access to advanced semiconductors, computing systems and other technologies considered important to AI development.
The latest allegations could therefore attract further attention from U.S. policymakers and regulators.
AI Companies Seek to Protect Proprietary Technology
The reported dispute highlights the intensifying competition between U.S. and Chinese artificial intelligence companies.
Major technology groups are investing heavily in generative AI while attempting to protect the data, research and computing infrastructure behind their most advanced models.
As AI systems become increasingly powerful, disagreements involving model access, intellectual property and distillation techniques could become more common across the industry.
