Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Jack Ma (pictured) has a new plan for gaining an edge over Western rivals in the technology arms race.

Today, the Chinese e-commerce giant announced the launch of an internal program that is set to see more than $15 billion invested in research and development over the next three years. Data compiled by CNBC shows that the sum is over double what Alibaba spent on engineering in its last three fiscal years.

Dubbed DAMO Academy, the initiative will apparently be organized into phases. Alibaba plans to start things off by establishing seven research labs in the U.S., China, Russia, Israel and Singapore. The company is initially recruiting 100 researchers to staff the facilities.

The sheer amount of capital allocated to the program would suggests that Alibaba will likely step up hiring efforts significantly in later stages. For reference, the company claims to have about 25,000 engineers and scientists on staff today.

The DAMO Academy’s efforts will be guided with input from an advisory board consisting of researchers from Princeton, Harvard, UC Berkeley and half a dozen other universities. They’ll be advising Alibaba Chief Technology Officer Jeff Zhang, who has been appointed to lead the initiative.

The company is clearly placing high hopes on the DAMO Academy. In a statement, Zhang said that the program “will be at the forefront of developing next-generation technology that will spur the growth of Alibaba and our partners.” The company plans to focus on a broad spectrum of areas ranging from quantum computing to fields with a more immediate connection to its business goals, such as artificial intelligence.

This broad-reaching mission statement is a reflection of Alibaba’s ambitious growth roadmap. Just like Amazon Inc., the Chinese e-commerce giant competes in multiple industries outside online retail, including the cloud market. Keeping pace with the numerous competitors in each segment will require a lot of research and development work.

The launch of the DAMO Academy is especially important given that Alibaba is increasingly looking beyond China to markets contested by Amazon.com Inc., Google LLC and other Western tech giants. Alibaba has the stated goal of reaching 2 billion customers worldwide.

Image: Alibaba