But why Gui'an?
Hyundai's decision to establish its first overseas data center in a city that still remains largely unknown outside of China may raise eyebrows – especially given that Guizhou Province remains one of China's poorest regions.
However, Gui'an New Area is one of China's most up-and-coming technology hubs, and Hyundai's move there indicates the Korean car maker knows its market well. Gui'an is being called China's "Big Data Valley" after attracting companies like Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba to set up R&D facilities, while China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and Huawei all have data centers there.
In July, Apple announced that it was investing one billion US dollars into its first China data center, choosing Gui'an as its base. But what is it about Gui'an New Area that is attracting some of the biggest domestic and international companies? According to the State Council earlier this year, the new area has cut red tape to the extent that it only takes five minutes to register a new business, while other business reforms pushed Premier Li Keqiang to say "in Gui'an, I have seen the hope of Guizhou, the hope of west China."
As far as big data is concerned, local authorities have invested heavily into the sector and other technology. Guizhou may be a poor province, but 29 million of its people are online, representing 80 percent of the entire provincial population. Some 25 million are mobile Internet users, making the province a good base for big data research.
The Milken Institute named Guiyang as its top-performing city in China last year in terms of economic growth, while Guizhou registered the third-fastest GDP growth in 2016, suggesting companies like Hyundai and Apple are ahead of the curve by choosing up-and-coming Gui'an New Area over established, more expensive tech hubs like Shenzhen and Hangzhou.
