Apple Inc will build its second data center in China at Ulanqab City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the local government.
As Apple's first data center in north China, it would commence operation in 2020 and offer iCloud services on the Chinese mainland, the Xinhua report said.
Last year, Apple set up a data center in the southern province of Guizhou, its first in China, to comply with the tougher cyber-security laws
The iPhone maker was not immediately available for comment.
The firm set up its first data centre in China this past July, in partnership with a local internet services company, to comply with tougher cybersecurity laws introduced by Beijing earlier in the summer.
The company said it was setting up the facility in the southern province of Guizhou with data management firm Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co (GCBD).
A spokesman told Reuters at the time that this would form part of a planned $1 billion (£0.78 billion) investment by Apple into the province.
'The addition of this data centre will allow us to improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly passed regulations,' the company said in a statement to Reuters.
'These regulations require cloud services be operated by Chinese companies so we're partnering with GCBD to offer iCloud.'
Apple also said that it had strong data privacy and security protections in place.
'No backdoors will be created into any of our systems,' it said.
WHY IS APPLE OPENING DATA CENTRES IN CHINA?
The US company said it was setting up the facility in the southern province of Guizhou with data management firm Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co Ltd.
A spokesman told Reuters this would form part of a planned $1 billion investment by Apple into the province.
China, on June 1, brought in a new cyber security law that codifies much stricter controls over data than in Europe and the United States, including mandating that firms store all data within China and pass security reviews.
Overseas business groups said the law's strict data surveillance and storage requirements are overly vague, burdening the firms with excessive compliance risks and threatening proprietary data.
China, on June 1, brought in a new cyber security law that codifies much stricter controls over data than in Europe and the United States, including mandating that firms store all data within China and pass security reviews.
Overseas business groups said the law's strict data surveillance and storage requirements are overly vague, burdening the firms with excessive compliance risks and threatening proprietary data.
In April, China also announced a law requiring businesses transferring over 1,000 gigabytes of data outside China to undergo yearly security reviews, with potential blocks on exporting economic, technological and scientific data.
Previously, Apple said it planned to open a new data centre in Denmark.
An earlier centre in the country, announced in 2015, will come online this year, it said.
The new laws come as Chinese cloud firms are expanding rapidly in foreign markets.
Alibaba Group Holding has 17 data centres across China, the United States, Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Other foreign firms that oversee cloud businesses, including Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp, already have data centres in China.
