Apple has revealed plans to open its first data centre in China in order to comply with stricter data storage laws recently put in place.
According to Reuters, the company is partnering with local data management firm Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co to build a data centre in Guizhou. It is part of Apple's plans for $1 billion worth of investment in the province.
China's government implemented a law in June 2017 requiring foreign companies to locally store data collected in the country. Apple is reportedly the first foreign company to announce plans to comply with the law.
Improving and complying
"The addition of this data center will allow us to improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly passed regulations," said a representative from Apple in a statement.
"These regulations require cloud services be operated by Chinese companies so we're partnering with GCBD to offer iCloud."
Apple had already revealed plans to invest $507 million in China in March 2017 with two new R&D centres in Shanghai and Suzhou. It is also building R&D centres in Beijing and Shenzen.