A mainland Chinese firm has secured the tender to build a supercomputing centre in Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis as the sole bidder, agreeing to pay a premium of HK$581 million (US$74.25 million) and boost the city’s computing power 36-fold.
Unveiling details of the plan on Monday, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said the winning bidder was Range Intelligent Computing Technology, whose parent company, Shenzhen-listed Runze Technology Group, specialises in developing and operating high-end data facilities on the mainland.
On a land grant of 50 years at Sandy Ridge in the Northern Metropolis megaproject, the winning bidder proposed commencing operations within 42 months, with a cumulative investment of HK$23.8 billion over the first three years, from development to initial launch.
During its first three years of operation, the project is expected to create 180 skilled positions and generate an economic output of HK$4.6 billion.
By 2032, Hong Kong’s computing power is expected to reach 180,000 petaflops – equal to 180,000 quadrillion calculations per second – equivalent to 36 times the current capacity.
Sun said that although only one company participated in the tender exercise, the government was satisfied with the outcome.
