In late 2020, Saudi Telecom, the Gulf state’s largest telecoms group, announced a partnership with China’s Alibaba Cloud to help the kingdom build its cloud computing infrastructure.
It was the latest in a series of deals made by Chinese companies to expand their cloud reach abroad — and part of China’s broader national push to become a world leader in high tech.
“This is something we’re going to see more in coming years,” says Justin Sherman, a fellow at US think-tank the Atlantic Council and an international affairs expert. And, already, the level of investment made by China, at home and abroad, is turning the country into a major player in the race to cloud hegemony.