Xiongan New Area has been in the news since insider investors swooped in earlier this year to purchase large swaths of property prior to a government announcement about more growth in the area.

Alibaba now is capitalizing on the boom with a deal in the province. Hebei Construction & Investment Group and Alibaba Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in Shijiazhuang to continue their cooperation in electricity use to ensure the long-term stable operation of the Zhangbei data center.

Meanwhile, they will actively implement cooperation in more sectors, including new smart city and smart infrastructure construction of Xiongan New Area, financial innovations for Internet credit and small loans, cloud computing infrastructure construction, and poverty alleviation, to help the transformation and green development of Hebei province.

Zhangbei data center is a world-class cloud computing data center established by Alibaba Group with an investment of CNY18 billion. It provides strong computing abilities for the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei while supporting the innovation development of more than two million small- and medium-sized enterprises across China.

The boost for Xiongan New Area will also be important, as investors' eyes have been on the area since the boom began. Alibaba's plans to increase smart city investments in the zone means a possible increase value for investments already made there. Xiongan New Area is set to become China's "Third Engine" of growth.