Apple Intelligence receives regulatory approval in China

Apple Intelligence has cleared regulators in China. That makes the company’s generative AI suite the only foreign service of its kind approved to run on iPhones in the country. Two regulators, two sign-offs The first green light came from the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet regulator, on July 15, 2026. With that approval, Apple Intelligence joined local players such as Huawei and Xiaomi on the list of AI services allowed on smartphones in China. Apple is the only foreign name in that group. A second approval followed on September 29, 2026, from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The MIIT sign-off updated network access permissions for upcoming hardware, including the iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro. That second filing also expanded network access to cover Apple Intelligence alongside Alibaba’s AI models. Apple plans to launch the features in December 2026 with iOS 27.3. The rollout will exclude the new Siri AI assistant and some of Apple’s creative tools. Built on local infrastructure Alibaba will supply the generative text and image capabilities, and its infrastructure will process cloud-based queries. Baidu will power search features....