Tencent To Invest $70B In Cloud, AI Projects In China, As Country Looks To Move Past Pandemic

China's Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY has committed nearly $70 billion for investment in the emerging technology sector in the country over the next five years, CNBC reported Tuesday.

What Happened

The WeChat parent company will invest in startups working with technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud computing, according to CNBC.

Tencent's pledge comes at a time when the Chinese government has called on the business sector to advance "new infrastructure" as a way forward from the economic impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The other projects in the new infrastructure plan include 5G mobile network technology and electric vehicles.

China's Premier Li Keqiang on Friday announced that the government would issue nearly $140 billion in bonds to help fund some of these efforts, as reported by CNBC earlier.

Tencent on Monday said it was also looking to raise up to $20 billion in a new bond offering to professional investors.

Why It Matters

The technology giant trails rivals Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. BABA and Baidu Inc. BIDU in some of the emerging technology.

Tencent's cloud subsidiary had only about 18% of the Chinese market share, compared to Alibaba's 46.4% at the end of the fourth quarter last year, according to data from research firm Canalys, reported by Reuters.

Alibaba further committed nearly $28 billion towards cloud computing in April.

Price Action

Tencent stock closed 2.33% higher at $53.91 per share in the otc market on Tuesday.