Apple’s data center in Guizhou develops rapidly amid trade war



Apple CEO Tim Cook hosts Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, California, the United States, June 3, 2019. (Xinhua)

US technology giant Apple Inc’s first data center in Guizhou, Southwest China, was officially powered on and entered the commissioning phase on Wednesday, progressing in a fast manner amid the prolonged trade war between the world’s largest two economies.

The data center, located in Guian, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, will be key to providing a iCloud experience for Chinese users. It will reduce delays and improve reliability for users, thereby increasing the overall speed of Apple services in China market.

In order to ensure stable power supply for the data center, the 110-kilovolt transformer substation in the Guian New Area has adopted the dual power supply and dual-cable connection for the first time, according to a report from domestic news site chinanews.com on Wednesday.

Construction of the data center is in the interests of Chinese users and the US company, especially when China and the US have been locked in a trade war for more than one year, Ma Jihua, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Apple announced plans to build a data center in Guizhou in July 2017, in compliance with China’s Cybersecurity Law. The law states that operators of key information infrastructure should store in the Chinese mainland important business and personal data that they collect from their operations in China.

Ma noted that with the fast development of the internet, data sovereignty is being strictly observed by many countries in the world, and “it’s a rather reasonable request for countries to ask [companies] to store their users’ data domestically.”

Jointly built by Apple and Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Co, the facility, with a budget of $1 billion, began construction in March last year and is expected to open for business in 2020. 

Apple also announced in February last year plans to build another data center in Ulanqab City in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which will be put into operation in 2020 and offer iCloud services on the Chinese mainland, according to the local government.

Apple’s decision to build two data centers in China is not only a result of its large user base in the country, but is also in line with its own need to prevent risks as the trade war brings more uncertainty to its businesses in China, Ma said.

“To cope with the unpredictable situation, the best thing for Apple to do is to operate separately and store separately when running its businesses in different places around the world,” Ma said.