Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Say Hello To Qwen3.8-Max

Alibaba Group ( BABA ) is rallying in Hong Kong after unveiling its latest flagship AI model, Qwen3.8-Max, claiming performance comparable to leading global AI systems , including Anthropic's ( ANTHRO ) Fable. Built on 2.4T parameters, the model reportedly outperforms Moonshot's recently launched Kimi K3 on several benchmarks. Alibaba plans to release the model's weights for public download next week, expanding open access to its latest AI technology. Alibaba said Qwen3.8-Max delivers strong performance in autonomous coding and long-horizon task execution. In internal testing, the model independently completed a software engineering project over a 16-day period. The launch comes as Alibaba accelerates investment in AI infrastructure and cloud computing to compete with Chinese rivals DeepSeek, Baidu ( BIDU ) and Tencent ( TCEHY ), while also challenging leading U.S. AI developers, including OpenAI ( OPENAI ) and Anthropic.

Also in AI, Google ( GOOGL ) ( GOOG ) disabled a new feature in Google Earth less than a day after launch, following demonstrations showing it could generate realistic but fictional satellite images of real-world locations, according to The New York Times. The experimental tool allowed users to alter aerial views of virtually any location by entering a text prompt. While intended for creative uses such as reconstructing historical sites or imagining future cityscapes, it was quickly used to fabricate convincing images of disasters, military facilities and conflict zones. For investors, the episode highlights the growing challenge facing AI developers as they race to release new features while preventing misuse. Google removed the feature on Friday, saying some users had shared AI-generated images in ways that violated company policies. The company said it plans to add safeguards before making the feature available again.

And AstraZeneca ( AZN ) and Bristol Myers Squibb ( BMY ) held preliminary discussions about a potential merger that would create one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, according to the Financial Times. The deal would rank among the largest healthcare mergers ever, potentially expanding AstraZeneca's U.S. presence while creating a drugmaker with a combined market value approaching $400B. However, the talks remain at an early stage and may not lead to an agreement. A combination would strengthen AstraZeneca's position in the world's largest pharmaceutical market while creating a broader portfolio spanning cancer, cardiovascular and specialty medicines. Neither company immediately commented.