Tencent Holdings, the tech giant, will be investing CNY 500 billion or USD 70 billion over the next five years in technology infrastructure. The major tech areas of investment are cloud computing, AI (artificial intelligence), and cybersecurity.
This announcement was made keeping in backdrop the Chinese Government’s mandate to bring the tech-driven structural upgrade through investment in new infrastructure, and a boom in demand for cloud services and business software.
Apart from these major investments, there are several other sectors of investments that include big data centers, supercomputer centers, Internet of Things operating systems, 5G networks, and blockchain, as Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent told the state media.
Tencent is popularly known for its WeChat Messaging App and popular games. It is also planning to grow in business services from computers to the cloud. The company also believes that although cloud businesses have suffered due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the cloud services and software adoption will get accelerated by offline industries and public sectors.
“Expediting the ‘new infrastructure’ strategy will help further cement virus containment success,” Tong said.
Tencent Cloud already holds 18% of China’s cloud market, trailing Alibaba Group Holding, which commanded 46.4%, as per a research firm Canalys.
Last month Alibaba announced that it would invest CNY 200 billion in the cloud infrastructure over three years.
