NEAR Foundation, the non-profit organization working on developing the NEAR Protocol ecosystem, has announced its collaboration with Alibaba Cloud, the Chinese technology and computing giant, with the aim of boosting the growth of Web3 technology in Asia and the Middle East. The company confirmed this in a statement to CoinDesk on Monday.

This partnership enables NEAR Foundation to access Alibaba Cloud’s developer ecosystem in Asia and the Middle East, with the goal of attracting more developers to build on the NEAR Protocol. Developers looking to launch new NEAR validators will be able to do so using Alibaba Cloud’s “ready-to-use” infrastructure.

NEAR Foundation and Alibaba Cloud will provide Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services for developers and users within the NEAR ecosystem. RPC is a type of computer server that allows users to read data on blockchains and send transactions to different networks. They will also offer multi-chain indexing services to provide an Application Programming Interface (API) for data querying to developers.

Users will also be able to utilize the NEAR Operating System (BOS), a platform launched earlier this year that allows developers to build and interact with other users, using Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure.

Following Alibaba’s announcement, NEAR prices rose by 8% to reach $1.57 on Monday.

This collaboration comes after Alibaba recently appointed its new CEO, Joseph Tsai, who has been an active investor in Web3 technology and has signed multiple deals with entities related to cryptocurrencies.

Raymond Xiao, Head of Web3 Technology Solutions at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said, “The partnership between NEAR Foundation and Alibaba Cloud is an important collaboration as we continue to support Web3 technology developers in exploring opportunities. It is also of great significance for developers and validators in Asian markets, as they can leverage Alibaba Cloud’s comprehensive infrastructure in Asia