The Innovation, Technology & Industry Bureau today announced that the Sandy Ridge Data Facility Cluster site, with a total area of over 110,000 sq m, has been awarded to Hong Kong Range Intelligent Computing Technology Company for developing into an advanced data facility cluster for data centres and related industries on a 50-year land grant at a premium of $581 million.

The bureau said the parent companies of the successful tenderer are Hong Kong Range Intelligent Computing Technology Development Company and Sengro Fusion Technology Hong Kong, with the ultimate holding company being Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group Company (the Group).

At a media session this afternoon, Secretary for Innovation, Technology & Industry Prof Sun Dong said the Group has extensive experience in developing high-tier data centres and has developed and operated high-tier data centres facilities and large-scale dataport projects in multiple cities on the Mainland.

The site is located at Lot No. 953 in Demarcation District No. 89 at Sandy Ridge, North District, New Territories.

The bureau pointed out that a two-envelope approach was adopted in the tender assessment to enable a comprehensive evaluation of both non-premium and premium proposals with a view to selecting the proposal that best unleashes the site's potential.

In the tender evaluation, a weighting of 70% was allocated to the non-premium proposal, and 30% to the premium proposal. The tender must comply with the requirements on both non-premium and premium aspects as specified in the tender documents.

The bureau said one tender was received. The Tender Assessment Panel assessed the tender in accordance with the criteria set out in the tender documents and confirmed the successful tenderer met the requirements in both the non-premium and the premium proposals.

The premium proposal of the tender is $581 million and the successful tenderer expects to commence operations within 42 months, with an estimated cumulative investment of $23.8 billion from the development to the operation in the first three years.

Other key aspects of the cluster to be developed by the successful tenderer include having 88% of the floor area among the 250,000 sq m-total gross floor area dedicated to high-tier data centre use.

In addition, the site is estimated to generate an economic output of about $4.6 billion and create around 180 skilled positions in the first three years of operation.

The site will also significantly expand Hong Kong's digital and computing power infrastructure, with an expected provision of 180,000 peta-floating point operations per second computing power by 2032, equivalent to 36 times the current computing power in the city.

The enhanced computing power will accelerate the development of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, promote scientific breakthroughs, and drive the widespread application of AI technology in industry and society.

Prof Sun made it clear that the Government will closely monitor the project's progress according to the service deed to ensure that the tender commitments are delivered as scheduled and with the required quality.

Meanwhile, the bureau noted that the cluster will provide crucial support for the development of AI in Hong Kong with essential elements such as data and computing power, deepening Hong Kong's leading advantage in regional digital infrastructure and cross-boundary data flow, promoting the development of the digital economy and smart city as well as making an active contribution to the country's high-quality development and the “AI+” initiative.