Apple Gui'an data center, Gui'an New Area, Guizhou

Apple's first data center in China, built jointly with Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co (GCBD) in the Gui'an New Area of Guizhou province, has served iCloud customers on the Chinese mainland since May 2021, DCD reported, citing the state news agency Xinhua. GCBD operates the data center and uses it to store Chinese customers' iCloud data inside the country.

Apple first announced plans for a data center in China in 2017, promising $1 billion of investment. The move followed a 2016 cybersecurity law requiring customer data to be stored on local servers, and Apple signed an agreement with the Guizhou government in 2017; construction began in March 2019. GCBD took over as operator of Apple's Chinese iCloud service in 2018, and Apple began moving data to the facility shortly afterward.

The arrangement has drawn privacy criticism. Under its agreements in China, GCBD is the legal owner of Apple iCloud data there, which lets Chinese authorities demand data from GCBD rather than Apple, AppleInsider reported. Apple maintains that only it has access to the encryption keys, but security experts say physical access to the servers makes that hard to guarantee.

Apple's support pages say iCloud in China mainland is operated by GCBD, which Apple identifies as AIPO Cloud (Guizhou) Technology Co. Ltd, and that iCloud data there is subject to GCBD's terms and conditions. Apple has also been developing a second Chinese data center in Ulanqab, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Chinese rules require foreign cloud firms to work through domestic partners; AWS's data centers there are operated by Beijing Sinnet and Microsoft's services by 21Vianet.