When Jack Ma traveled to the New York Stock Exchange for Alibaba’s record-breaking IPO, it was clear to all that this was a company that was not going to stand still. Today, Alibaba is already making huge investments, and expanding into the the financial and automotive industries.

Alibaba Group announced this week that it would be launching a 1 billion yuan fund with China’s largest automaker, SAIC Motor Corp. The collaboration between the two companies will provide consumers with an integrated wireless internet system, offering on-the-go cloud computing, digital entertainment, financial data, and maps.

“In the age of the Internet economy,” said officials from SAIC, “cross-boundary integration has become an inevitable trend. The cars of the future must be Internet-oriented.”

In the meantime, Alibaba is also teaming up with online lenders, Iwoca and Ezboz. By teaming up with online lenders, Alibaba will make it possible to open up a line of credit for buyers making purchases via its online marketplace. By opening up a line of credit for smaller businesses across the globe, analysts are expecting that transaction activity will increase on Alibaba’s platform, whilst making it easier to make bulk purchases.

Wei Duan, Alibaba’s European head of marketing and business development, believes this initiative has enormous potential. “Our vision is always about helping the smaller businesses,” said Duan. “We realised finance for small business is very difficult to manage and we want to help.”