Google has confirmed it will build its third data center in Taiwan, following speculation last month by the country’s Economic Daily News.
The tech giant made the announcement at a ‘Google for Taiwan’ event held on Thursday 3 September.
“As a country with limited natural resources and a population insufficient to produce the demographic dividend, Taiwan should ‘go smart’ to boost its international profile,” said Google Taiwan’s General Manager, Tina Lin.
Reports made by Taiwanese media outlets in late August suggested Google had purchased a 198,000 square meter plot of land in Yunlin County from local manufacturing firm China Man-made Fiber for US$681 million.
At present, Google has one data center in the Changhua County of Taiwan, and Google announced plans to build a second hyperscale data center in Tainan City last year.
At the event, Google also revealed its ambitions for its Digital Talent Exploration Program, expressing its plans to partner with Taiwanese businesses and the government to build a strong digital economy and a ‘smart Taiwan’.
Taiwan is one of Google’s largest tech bases in the Asia Pacific. And with a third data center, Google would be investing more than US$800 million in Taiwan, highlighting the company’s commitment to expand its presence in Asia, outside of Singapore and Indonesia where its other data centers preside.
