US tech giant Apple is mulling a $1-billion regional data hub in Hanoi, according to the Dien dan doanh nghiep, the official publication of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“Apple is studying the sites for the construction and completing the investment procedures,” the publication said, cited its source.
This will be Apple’s first investment in Vietnam and it will be following in the footsteps of South Korean conglomerates Samsung and LG, and US-headquartered Microsoft, which have been present in the country for years.
However, while the others have invested in manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, Apple will reportedly build a data centre meant for its entire Asian operations.
Reuters reported in November last year that Apple had set up a subsidiary in the Southeast Asian country to import and sell its mobile phones directly in this market.
Samsung is one of the biggest investors in Vietnam with $13 billion direct investment in factories and a research hub in Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen and Ho Chi Minh City. LG Electronics is also building a $1.5-billion producing complex in northern Vietnam. Microsoft has shifted its smartphone production from China, Hungary and Mexico to Vietnam in 2014.
Meanwhile, the iPhone maker has been aggressively investing in R&D with a spend of $8 billion last year. Apple already has R&D facilities in the UK, China, Taiwan, US, Israel and Japan.
“It is unclear when Apple will deploy the Hanoi-based centre, but the size of the project has shown the high potential of the Vietnam market to the US tech major,” the Dien dan doanh nghiep commented.
Samsung, as Apple’s biggest competitor in the Vietnam’s mobile phone market, is also investing in two R&D centres, a $300-million new one in Hanoi and a facility within the $1.4-billion complex in Ho Chi Minh City.
Several other global tech and electronics firms have chosen Vietnam as base for their global back-end and manufacturing activities, including Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic and Nissan Techno.
Vietnam is considered as the next manufacturing powerhouse of Asia, fueled by its growing economy, young and urbanised population and cheap labour cost.
Also, US has been Vietnam’s biggest export market for the last couple of years, accounting for the largest proportion of 20.7 per cent of the total exports, according to a latest update of Trading Economics.