Chinese technology giant Tencent will invest 500 billion yuan ($70 billion) over the next five years in technologies aimed at improving internal infrastructure of the holding.

The list of technologies Tencent will develop includes artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurity, blockchain, big data centers and supercomputers, the Internet of things (IoT), the new 5G mobile communications network, and quantum computing. This was announced by the vice president of the holding Dowson Tong in an interview with Chinese media.

Chinese authorities called on national technology companies to actively introduce new technologies to stimulate the second largest US economy in the world amid growing demand for new software and cloud services from enterprises. China's Premier Li Keqiang on 22 May announced that the government would issue nearly $140 billion in bonds to help fund some of these efforts.

Following the announcement of a new investment plan, Tencent shares rose 2.5%.

Tencent expects growth in demand for cloud services and enterprise software from traditional offline businesses and the public sector, according to Reuters.

The strategy to develop the new infrastructure will help strengthen the achievements in the fight against the virus, Tong added.

As of Q4 2019, Tencent occupied 18% of the Chinese cloud services market. The leader in this area in China is the Alibaba group, whose share is estimated at 46.4%, according to analysts from the research firm Canalys.

In April, Alibaba announced that it would invest 200 billion yuan ($28 billion) on cloud infrastructure such as datacenters over the next three years. The Chinese company is now recognized as one of Asia’s leading cloud players, though Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc. are stepping up competition at home and abroad.