Software company Globant is planning to invest $1bn (4.89bn reais) over five years to bolster its operations in Latin America.

As part of the investment plan, Globant will set up an Innovation and Emerging Technologies Center in San Pablo, Brazil.

The centre will explore new potential use cases for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

It will develop new AI applications for Salesforce products specifically for the Brazilian market.

Globant also plans to increase its headcount by 20,000. Currently, the technology company employs 27,000 people across the globe.

The new hirings will be made across 30 of the company’s development centres located in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

A portion of the investment will also be used to accelerate the development of its AI-powered software development tools.

These advancements will be led by the company’s product and platforms division Globant X, which houses Augoor, MagnifAI, StarMeUp, and GeneXus platforms.

Globant co-founder and CEO Martín Migoya said: “We were born in Latin America, and believe that it is one of the strongest regions when it comes to innovation, talent, and creativity. Latin America is key for our global growth as a source of continuous improvement of our service offering.

“We want to expand our capacity for innovation and development of our AI-based offering, always to help organizations stay relevant and leaders in the future.”

Set up in 2003, Argentina-headquartered Globant operates in 25 countries and caters to clients, such as Google, Electronic Arts and Santander.