Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) has unveiled a new 13 billion New Taiwan dollar (US$412M) data center in New Taipei City, in the northern part of Taiwan.

Billed as Taiwan’s first cloud data center, the facility has total floor area of 92,600 sq m and 4,368 racks to house servers and networking equipment, according to CHT.

From left to right, Chunghwa Telecom Chairman Rick Tsai, Taiwan Premier Lin Chuan, Taiwan Minister of Transport Ho Chen Dan.
Chunghwa Telecom chairman Rick Tsai, Taiwan Premier Lin Chuan, Taiwan Minister of Transport Ho Chen Dan (L to R) – Chunghwa Telecom

Taiwan wants it now

CHT also pointed to strong demand based on contract signings and ongoing negotiations, and noted that it may take just 3 to 4 years to fully occupy the data center. This is ahead of the minimum of six years that was initially projected.

CHT indicated that it is talking to Internet service providers, OTT providers, content providers, online game operators, securities companies and financial service providers for its new data center.

“This is the largest in Taiwan, and the most advanced data center in East Asia. We hope to attract global companies to our facilities and help boost Taiwan’s digital economy,” said chairman Rick Tsai at the opening ceremony of the new facility. “We hope this will become an Asia-Pacific data center hub.”

chunghwa taipei data center
Chunhwa data center, Taipei – Chunghwa Telecom

Taiwan has been in the news recently, with Apple reportedly considering a data center at Taiwan’s Changhua County. Google has built its first data centers in the region in Singapore and Taiwan, with the latter subsequently expanded.

The Google facility in Taiwan has a wind turbine and uses thermal energy storage so it can take advantage of lower-cost night-time electricity for its cooling systems.