Alibaba has plans to set up seven research labs and hire 100 scientists, whose focus will be artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and quantum computing, according to the Bloomberg report. Machine learning, visual computing and network security are reported to be specific areas of interest. Labs are planned for the US, Russia, Israel and Singapore, and collaborations with universities like UC Berkely will be funded, as well, says Bloomberg.

Amazon leads the tech world in R&D spending, with a reported $16.1 billion spent, followed closely by Alphabet ($13.9 billion) Intel ($12.7 billion), Microsoft ($12.3 billion) and Apple ($10 billion), as seen in a report on Recode using FactSet data. Alibaba will outpace all but Amazon, assuming the other companies don't increase their own spending in the next three years, which is unlikely. Still, China's leader in e-commerce is taking a big step forward to compete on a global level with these western companies.