Alibaba will tap international debt markets for as much as $8bn this month in what could be one of the country’s biggest ever dollar bonds at a time when the company is being squeezed by regulators and rivals.

The Chinese ecommerce group plans to raise at least $5bn in its issue, according to people familiar with the plans, building on a list of major tech groups including Tencent and Google, which took advantage of record-low interest rates last year to gather billions of dollars. If demand is strong, the total could be raised to $8bn, the people said.

Alibaba had $44bn in cash on its balance sheet at the end of September, much of it held onshore in Chinese renminbi. The dollar raise will provide more flexibility to invest outside of China and develop its overseas operations, according to one of the people familiar with the plans.