The report says that the construction will begin in Q1 2013 while the datacenter is expected to go operational by 2015.

An anonymous employee of a bidding contractor is quoted as saying in the report that the Apple datacenter's scale is unprecedented for his business. According to the report, Apple is still reviewing bids from various firms for the datacenter construction.

Though Apple had considered building its facility in Tseung Kwan O where datacenters of large corporations -- such as Google, Hong Kong Exchange, and NTT Communications -- are located, the company didn't see the area as suitable given the construction cost and scale, the report adds.

Computerworld Hong Kong contacted Apple, the OGCIO (Office of the Government CIO), and InvestHK Wednesday morning for a confirmation of the news.

While Apple hasn't responded to our inquiry at press time, the OGCIO declines to comment on the news. "We have received inquiries from many enterprises and datacenter operators about the prospect of setting up datacenters in Hong Kong. We have provided information on Hong Kong's strengths as a location for datacenters, government's facilitation measures and availability of possible sites. The final decision rests with these enterprises and we are not in a position to make any comment," the spokesperson writes in an email response.