Tencent is to start work on second phase of Chongqing data center. [Photo/IC]

Chinese internet heavyweight Tencent Holdings Ltd said on Wednesday that it will invest 3 billion yuan ($438 million) to start building the second phase of its data center project in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese metropolis.

The new investment will help add 100,000 servers, bringing the total number of its servers in Chongqing to 200,000 units. The move is part of Tencent's broader push to expand its presence in the cloud computing sector amid heightened competitions from rivals such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Tencent said the Shenzhen-based company currently has about 400 employees in Chongqing. As it expands local businesses to cover information security, gaming and others, its local team will grow to around 1,000 by the end of this year.

Pony Ma, chairman of Tencent, said earlier that Chongqing is a very innovative city and has a sound industrial base, which will give it an edge in the big data and digital economy era.

Tencent's artificial intelligence technologies are also being applied to several local hospitals to assist doctors in diagnosing diseases and treating patients.

On Wednesday, the company also signed a deal with the Wulong district in Chongqing to develop smart travel solutions.

The deal came ahead of the 2018 Smart China Expo, which will be held from Thursday to Saturday in Chongqing.

The first Smart China Expo is jointly organized by the Chongqing government, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the China Association for Science and Technology.

Themed "Smart Technology: Empowering Economy, Enriching Life", the 150,000-square-meter expo is expected to attract a wide range of leading domestic and overseas internet and tech tycoons and companies, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Tencent, JD and foreign giants such as Siemens AG.