As AI consultants based in Rosenheim, Germany, we recommend Qwen models for enterprises looking for an open-source alternative with Apache 2.0 license. With the Qwen 3.5 generation (February 2026), Alibaba now offers native multimodality with video understanding and agentic AI capabilities. For GDPR-compliant usage in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), we recommend self-hosting or AWS Bedrock in Frankfurt.
Qwen 3.5: The Next Generation
Native Multimodality
Qwen 3.5 unifies text, image, and video in one architecture:
- Video Analysis: Understands up to 2 hours of video in a single prompt
- Timestamp-Precise: Identifies events at second-level resolution
- Long Context: Up to 1 million tokens (entire books, large codebases)
- Flexible Input: URLs, local files, frame sequences
Agentic AI & Automation
Qwen 3.5 can execute autonomous workflows:
- App interaction on smartphones
- Document editing and email management
- Travel booking and process automation
- Multi-step tasks with tool use
Efficiency through Mixture-of-Experts
The Qwen3.5-397B-A17B model uses:
- 397 billion parameters total
- Only 17 billion active per inference
- 60% lower costs than predecessors
- 8-19x higher throughput than Qwen3
Key Strengths
Open Source & Apache 2.0
- Full Control: Model runs in your infrastructure
- No License Costs: Commercial use permitted
- Customizable: Fine-tuning on your own data possible
- GDPR-Friendly: No data leaves your company
Expanded Multilingual Support
Qwen 3.5 supports 200+ languages and dialects:
- Chinese (outstanding)
- European languages (very good)
- Expanded coverage: South Asia, Africa, Oceania
- Competitive with Western models
Text-in-Image Generation
Qwen-Image is leading in:
- Complex text layouts
- Multilingual text rendering
- Paragraph-level semantics
- Fine detail work
Availability
AWS Bedrock (EU)
Qwen3 models are now available on AWS Bedrock in Frankfurt:
- Fully managed and serverless
- EU data residency (GDPR-compliant)
- Integration with AWS services
- Qwen3-32B, Qwen3-235B, Qwen3-Coder available
Self-Hosting
All Qwen models can be operated in your own infrastructure - this way all data remains under your control.
Benchmarks & Performance
| Benchmark | Score | Model |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU | 90.6% | Qwen3-235B VL |
| HumanEval | 93% | Qwen3-32B |
| GSM8K | 79.3% | Qwen3-32B |
| C-Eval (CN) | 85.6% | Qwen3-32B |
Qwen 3.5 competes with GPT-4-class models and clearly outperforms other open-source alternatives.
Hardware Requirements (Self-Hosted)
| Model | VRAM | Recommended GPU |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | 80+ GB | H100/MI300X |
| Qwen3-235B-A22B | 48+ GB | A100/H100 |
| Qwen-Image 20B | 48+ GB | A100/H100 |
| Qwen3 (smaller variants) | 16-24 GB | RTX 4090 |
Integration with CompanyGPT
Qwen models can be integrated into CompanyGPT as a self-hosted option or via AWS Bedrock - full GDPR compliance guaranteed.
Our Recommendation
Qwen 3.5 sets new standards for open-source AI with native video support and agentic workflows. For DACH enterprises, we recommend:
- AWS Bedrock Frankfurt: For managed solution with EU data residency
- Self-Hosting: For maximum data control and customizability
- Qwen3-32B: Best balance of performance and efficiency
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B: For highest multimodality requirements