Alibaba has released Qwen3.7-Max, its new proprietary flagship reasoning model, and the numbers are worth paying attention to. The model scores 56.6 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, a 4.8-point gain over its predecessor Qwen3.6 Max Preview (51.8), placing it fifth overall and making it the highest-ranked Chinese model on the leaderboard. GPT-5.5 (60.2), Claude Opus 4.7 (57.3), and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (57.2) still lead the pack , but Alibaba has never been this close.
From open to closed, again
Since Qwen2.5 Max in January 2025, Alibaba has followed a consistent strategy: release Max and Plus variants as closed-weight proprietary models while keeping the rest of the Qwen line open. Qwen3.7-Max continues that pattern. Qwen3.7-Max is not open source and not open-weight , you cannot download it and you cannot run it on your own GPUs. The leading open-weights Qwen on the Intelligence Index remains Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning, 45.8), while the leading open-weights MoE Qwen is Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning, 45.0).
The shift is deliberate. Alibaba updated its flagship model for long-running agentic work, pushing it into the top rank among LLMs built in China. Alongside Qwen3.7-Max, Alibaba also released Qwen3.7-Plus, the multimodal sibling with vision support.
Where it actually improved
The 4.8-point jump on the Intelligence Index is real, but it is not evenly distributed. The gains are concentrated in three areas:
- Scientific reasoning: Most of the Index gains are concentrated in scientific reasoning, agentic capability, and coding. CritPt (physics reasoning) jumped 9.7 percentage points, from 3.7% to 13.4%.
Don't miss what's next in AI
Join 300,000+ engineers and researchers who get the signal, not the noise.
- Full access to in-depth AI research breakdowns
- Be the first to know what's trending before it hits mainstream
- Daily curated papers, repos, and industry moves