Chinese tech firm Tencent is to launch its industrial chain cooperation with nine cities in the G60 High-tech Corridor, following an investment of 15 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) in building its Yangtze River Delta supercomputing center and industrial base in Songjiang in March 2020, a recent conference between the company and the G60 High-tech Corridor cities revealed. The corridor is an urban-rural development axis that connects Songjiang with eight cities in the Yangtze River Delta — Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Jinhua and Huzhou in Zhejiang Province, Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, and Xuancheng, Wuhu and Hefei in Anhui Province. A renowned global Internet technology company, Tencent has more than 8,000 industrial partners and more than 300,000 corporate customers currently use or enjoy its Internet products and services. “The supercomputing center we’ve planned to build in Songjiang will help attract about 100 related companies in big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence to be based in the district,” said Dao Feng, vice president of Tencent Cloud. “Apart from Songjiang, we hope to also show our strengths in AI, big data, cloud computing and industrial Internet in the remaining eight cities along the G60 High-tech Corridor and help them develop.” During the conference, Tencent also signed agreements with its first batch of 20 Tencent Cloud cooperative companies. Its 20 partners include China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, China Broadcasting Network Corp (four major Internet operators in China) and companies from the nine cities. Tencent agreed to help the companies with product sales solutions, market activity support, and offer them technology or business support or privileges. “We plan to set up our second headquarters in Songjiang to provide solutions in the field of cloud primary technologies. Our technology, research and development and selling departments will also be based in Songjiang,” said Zuo Yue, CEO of Beijing Alauda Science and Technology Co, one of the 20 cooperative companies. The giant industrial chains Tencent will bring to Songjiang are also encouraging local companies. “We felt we were fighting alone previously. With Tencent joining, we are confident of making better products,” said Zhang Zhantao, CEO of Shanghai Tianfu Information & Technology Co. “We hope Tencent, with its industrial chain related companies and industrial ecological chain related companies, will promote the digitalization and industrialization of the nine G60 High-tech Corridor cities, and help build digital infrastructure, an online economy, smart manufacturing and smart life in the region,” said Dai Zhiming, an official with the Yangtze River Delta G60 High-tech Corridor joint office. Tencent announced its supercomputing center and industrial base construction plan in March 2020, saying that Songjiang is highly compatible with the company’s vision of digital city construction. Construction of the project, which will cover an area of about 236 mu (15.7 hectares), began in June last year. When completed, the AI industrial park will house more than 100 high-tech firms. Its AI supercomputing center in Songjiang is expected to become the nation’s Top 3 and Yangtze River Delta’s top supercomputing center, and shoulder the national strategy of innovative city construction and smart city construction. Tencent will also introduce qualified AI companies to be based in the industrial park which will also include Tencent’s Yangtze River Delta AI incubator and Keen Security Lab, and nurture an industrial AI ecosystem.