Alibaba Group Ltd. plans to invest $1 billion in cloud computing globally as it seeks to compete with Amazon.com in web services.

The e-commerce giant said part of the money will go to set up data centers in the Middle East, Japan and Europe. Alibaba’s cloud-computing arm, Aliyun, opened its first overseas data center in Silicon Valley earlier this year and plans to set up another in the eastern U.S, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The funding will also be used to expand and support Alibaba’s network of technology and telecommunications partners, which currently includes Intel Corp. and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., the company said, according to the Journal.

“This additional US$1 billion investment is just the beginning,” said Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “Our hope is for Aliyun to continually empower customers and partners with new capabilities, and help companies upgrade their basic infrastructure.”

Though Aliyun faces challenges attracting U.S. customers unfamiliar with the brand and its offerings, Aliyun President Simon Hu said, it aims to become serious competition for Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-computing unit, Amazon Web Services.

“We see that Amazon took 10 years to get to where it is today. Aliyun is just past its sixth year and we hope to match or outperform Amazon within three or four years,” Hu said, according to the Journal.