Facebook to invest over £780m in its first Asian data centre

Facebook has said it will splurge more than S$1.4bn (£786.8m) on building its first data centre in Asia in Singapore, with an opening date scheduled in 2022.

The 170,000 square metre facility will be based on the island's west coast, close to Google's own data centres, which the search giant is also expanding through an $850m (£657.2m) investment.

Facebook's vice president of infrastructure data centres, Thomas Furlong, confirmed the venture will be the social media firm's first in Asia at a press conference with local authorities in Singapore this morning, Reuters reported. 

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A statement from the company said it intends to create "hundreds" of jobs on the island.

Other Facebook data centres currently exist in the US, Ireland and Sweden, with another under construction in Denmark.

The new building in Singapore will be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy, and designed to reduce the use of water and electricity to a minimum.