Everyone’s talking about ChatGPT, Claude and Grok. But there’s another competitor creeping up the charts: Qwen from Alibaba.

Most people haven’t tried it. So today, I decided to see if this model can compete with the best from America.

I used the new 32B model and fed it the same prompts I recently used to test Grok 3. Let’s see what this puppy can do!

1) Qwen, My New Investment Analyst. My first test is a tough one: helping choose an asset allocation for my stocks.

Here’s the prompt I used:

“Assume I have a portfolio of index funds. My goal with this portfolio is long term growth. How should I allocate this portfolio across different types of index funds? Consider options like US index funds, foreign stock index funds, etc. I am 39 years old, so my time horizon is long. My risk tolerance is high. What would be the best allocation, given all this information? Use the best research you can find to support your answer.”

I turned on “Search,” just like I did for Grok. Here’s what Qwen gave me…

Qwen recommended a portfolio tilted heavily to the US. This is at odds with research Grok cited, showing that the world stock market is split 60/40 between US and foreign by market cap.

What Qwen is recommending is risky and doesn’t make much sense. Perhaps this is because it only looked at 9 sources, as opposed to 40 for Grok 3.

I’m giving this response a C.

2) Qwen, The Startup Finder. Next, I used Qwen to search for startups in areas I’m interested in. Maybe I’ll get a new investment out of this!

Here’s the prompt:

“What are the most interesting startups at pre-seed stage working on solutions to increase fertility? Consider startups to lower costs and improve effectiveness of IVF, and also startups to improve egg health for older women, among other possible ways to boost fertility. Please only show me startups that have raised $750,000 or less in funding.”

Again, I used the “Search” function. Let’s see what Qwen can do:

Qwen popped up some cool startups. But when I searched them on Crunchbase, they had raised a lot more than $750k. This means they’re too late stage for me.

So, Qwen’s result wasn’t useful. Grok had some of the same problems, but it found at least a few startups that met my criteria.

I’m going to give this round a C as well.

3) Coach Qwen. Finally, I asked Qwen to help me perform better in my founder meetings.

Here’s the prompt I used:

“As an angel investor, I meet with a lot of startup founders. I want to do the best job I can in those meetings. What are some tips to perform better, be more helpful, and learn more about the startups I meet with?”

I turned off the Search for this one, since it shouldn’t require a ton of sources. Here’s what Qwen gave me:

Qwen’s response is solid. It told me to thoroughly prepare and to spend most of my time listening to the founder.

These are things I already try to do, but it’s good to have that reminder.

However, Qwen’s response was not as insightful as Grok’s. Grok told me to watch the founder’s body language and to question his key assumptions, both great suggestions.

Qwen’s response felt a little more obvious and generic than Grok’s. So, I’ll give it a B here.

Wrap-Up

Qwen does great on benchmarking tests. But in real world use, I came away unimpressed.

Overall, I’m giving it a C+.

It’s a serviceable model that does an okay job of answering questions. But Grok or ChatGPT give better answers.

I’m sticking to Grok 3 as my homepage and main LLM. It will take something really special to dethrone it.

Have you tried Qwen?

More on tech:

How Good is Grok 3?

Using Grok 3 to Manage My Stock Portfolio
My Favorite Tech Tools

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