IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. (Photo Via Webcast)

The cloud is becoming a bigger part of IBM’s business, and the technology giant is expanding its data center offerings.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty announced at the company’s InterConnect conference in Las Vegas Tuesday a new data center in China, its 51st overall in 20 nations.

Rometty said the cloud is now 17 percent of IBM’s total business. IBM wants to become the go-to source for enterprise cloud business, and at the core of its offering is the cognitive abilities of AI software Watson.

“I would characterize it as almost human,” Rometty said of Watson’s abilities to listen, decipher images and understand technical fields like medicine.

At the conference keynote, Rometty will talk with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, as well as representatives of H&R Block, Royal Bank of Canada and Girls Who Code

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.