Google invests $300M in new Hong Kong data center

Google Inc. says it will spend $300 million on a new data center in Hong Kong that will be up and running by 2013 as it beefs up infrastructure to keep pace with rapidly rising Asian Internet use.

The search giant broke ground for the facility on Thursday. It's also planning data centers in Singapore and Taiwan. They'll be the company's first data centers in Asia, joining six in the United States and two in Europe.

The cost includes land, construction and technical equipment.

Data centers are secure facilities packed with thousands of computers that store and serve vast amounts of information.

The company said in September it planned to spend at least $100 million each on the Hong Kong and Taiwan centers.