Chinese tech giant Alibaba said Monday it will spend more than $50 billion on artificial intelligence and cloud computing over the next three years, a week after co-founder Jack Ma was seen meeting President Xi Jinping.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) has announced an investment of 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) for its cloud computing and AI infrastructure, making it the largest private computing project to date.

Chief executive Eddie Wu said AI was "the kind of opportunity for industry transformation that only comes around only once every few decades."

Alibaba, co-founded by Jack Ma plans to spend more on its AI and cloud computing network than it has over the past decade.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba said on Monday it will invest more than 380 billion yuan (US$52.4 billion) on artificial intelligence and cloud computing

The Chinese technology giant first mentioned the plan last week when it reported results but didn’t provide a specific figure.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. pledged to invest more than 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) on AI infrastructure such as data centers over the next three years, a major commitment that underscores the e-commerce pioneer’s ambitions of becoming a leader in artificial intelligence.