Alibaba to open U.S. data center

Chinese Internet giant’s Aliyun unit plans to build facility in Silicon Valley.

The Chinese Internet giant’s Aliyun unit is planning to build a facility in Silicon Valley.

Alibaba continues make inroads in the U.S.

In a move that directly competes with Amazon .com, the Chinese Internet juggernaut announced that Aliyun, its 5-year-old cloudcomputing

to business, would open its first overseas data center in Silicon Valley.

Alibaba did not specify which city would house the center, when the facility would open or how much the company would spend to build it.

“For security reasons, we aren’t disclosing the exact location,” an Alibaba spokesman said.

The data center will initially serve Chinese enterprises in the United States, the company said, but the plan is to gradually expand its products and services to international clients in the second half of this year.

It is to provide a variety of cloud-computing services that are intended to attract Chinese businesses as they develop applications.

Although the center will also cater to U.S. businesses, its China focus indicates that Alibaba sees Chinese enterprises becoming a bigger presence in Silicon Valley.

Aliyun already has Chinese data centers in Hangzhou, Qingdao, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

“Aliyun hopes to meet the needs of Chinese enterprises in the United States, and the ultimate objective of Aliyun is to bring cost-efficient and cutting-edge cloud computing services to benefit more clients outside China to boost their business development,” Ethan Sicheng Yu, Aliyun’s vice president, said in a statement.

Shares of Hangzhoubased Alibaba rose $3.91, or 4.8%, to $85.49 on Wednesday. They have fallen sharply since their November high of $119.15.