Chinese online retailer JD.com plans to invest 20.5 billion yuan (3 billion U.S. dollars) in the next five years to build a logistics hub in the northwestern city of Xi'an, the company said.

JD.com signed the deal Monday with Xi'an National Civil Aerospace Industrial Base. It is part of JD.com's strategic partnership deal with the provincial government of Shaanxi, of which Xi'an is the capital.

JD.com said the hub will contain a global logistics headquarters, an automation industrial center and an operational center, featuring big data, cloud computing and automation technologies.

It said the hub is the largest of its kind in China.

The company aims to develop an entire storage and delivery chain run by machines, featuring drones, self-driving cars, and robot-run warehouses. The research team that will develop the unmanned system will be chosen by the end of 2017, it said. A drone assembly line is also planned.

The NASDAQ-listed company is the arch-rival of Alibaba. JD.com's active accounts have reached around 200 million.

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