Dive Brief:

• Alibaba announced it will work with U.S.-based Nvidia Corp. on cloud computing, deep-learning and high-performance computing initiatives.
• The company plans to invest $1 billion in AliCloud, its cloud division, in hopes of expanding business in the U.S. and competing against cloud giant Amazon Web Services.
• Alibaba plans to hire around 1,000 developers over the next three years to work on its big data platform. 

Dive Insight:

Alibaba recently opened its second data center in Silicon Valley and is preparing to open its first in Europe, demonstrating the company’s commitment to growing its cloud offerings.

The current leader in public cloud in the U.S., Amazon Web Services, had revenues of $2.1 billion in the third quarter of 2015, indicating there is still plenty of room for new competitors if they set themselves apart and offer competitive pricing. 

The public cloud is a $120 billion global market opportunity, according to SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc.

“AliCloud’s rate of growth is one of the fastest among global peers,” Simon Hu, the division’s president, said during a presentation in Shanghai. “Apart from being fast-expanding in Asia, we will also maintain our growth in Europe and the Middle East.”