China wants to attract talent in AI areas of biometric identification, cloud computing, big data and deep learning and wants to apply them in military technology in order to gain a leverage over the United States.

China is pushing ahead to fulfill its ambition of becoming a world leader in Artificial Intelligence by 2025 and plans on investing $2.12 billion for a AI park in Beijing’s Mentougou district.

The park aims to house 400 enterprises and have an estimated annual output of 50 billion yuan, reported China Xinhua news agency citing a report from authorities in Beijing’s Mentougou district.

As per its report, the Zhongguancun Development Group, the developer of the park, aims to partner with foreign universities and build a “national-level” AI lab in the area.

Nor Zhongguancun Development and representatives for Beijing’s Mentougou district could be immediately reached for comment.

The development assumes significance over China’s heightened tensions with the United States over the application of AI in military technology.

According to the State Council, China aims to grow the local industry to over 150 billion yuan by 2020 and 400 billion yuan by 2025.

Beijing is pushing development in AI ventures and has unveiled a series of plans to bolster talent, investment and research in the technology. It has also urged military, public and private firms to collaborate on its national AI goals.

The move has attracted foreign firms: Alphabet Inc’s Google announced last month that it would launch a Beijing-based AI research team despite the fact that China has consistently blocked the Google search engine with its firewall.

The AI park aims to attract enterprises working on biometric identification, cloud computing, big data and deep learning.