GDS plans HK$1.5b investment in new data centres

GDS Holdings, a mainland information-technology services group backed by the World Bank, aims to invest more than HK$1.5 billion to build two advanced data centres in Hong Kong.

Privately held GDS, which is based in Shanghai, intends to develop a primary facility and a backup site to meet the offshore requirements of its principal customers on the mainland, including more than 150 Chinese financial institutions.

"We plan to invest more than US$200 million in stages over a five-year period to develop two data centres in Hong Kong," William Huang Wei, the founder, chairman and chief executive of GDS, told the South China Morning Post.

GDS management was talking to a number of undisclosed property companies and financial institutions as potential new partners and investors, Huang said. He added it was the company's goal to become "the No1 specialist data-centre services provider in China" in the next five years, which meant fresh funding was needed.

A data centre is a secure, temperature-controlled facility that houses large-capacity server computers and data-storage systems, and is equipped with multiple power sources and high-bandwidth links to the internet.

Huang said group subsidiary GDS Infrastructure was exploring potential locations in Hong Kong to set up the first of its two data centres this year. The estimated gross floor area of these two facilities would be 20,000 square metres.