GLP Starts Construction on 200MW Data Center Campus in Foshan, China

Property and digital infrastructure investor GLP has broken ground on a 200MW data center campus in Foshan, Guangdong Province, marking one of the largest projects of its kind planned for China's Greater Bay Area. The company announced on September 4 that construction has commenced on the first phase, which comprises 40MW of IT capacity.

The development represents a total investment of RMB 4 billion (approximately $600 million) and is being purpose-built for an unnamed "Internet and cloud services company" that is expanding its existing partnership with GLP. The campus is expected to become a cornerstone of digital infrastructure in the region, which is emerging as a key hub for cloud and AI-driven workloads.

Gavin Shen, president of digital infrastructure at GLP China, emphasized the strategic significance of the project. "We are delighted to expand our partnership with a leading hyperscale customer and deeply value the continued trust they have placed in GLP. AI is creating one of the most significant infrastructure opportunities of the next decade, and the scale of this new campus validates our strategy of building a differentiated digital infrastructure platform for the AI era," he said. "By combining infrastructure development, data center operations, energy integration, and capital management capabilities, we provide customers with end-to-end support that helps them deploy faster, scale more efficiently, and create lasting value in the digital economy."

Technically, the facility will employ a hybrid liquid and air cooling architecture, supporting liquid-cooled rack densities of up to 140kW. GLP is also applying modular construction methods, including prefabricated components, which the company says will enable delivery of phases in as little as four months. This approach is designed to accelerate time-to-market for hyperscale tenants facing mounting pressure to bring AI capacity online quickly.

Foshan, a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong, sits within China's secondary data center markets, while the country's largest concentrations of capacity remain around Shanghai, Beijing, and Langfang. The choice of Foshan reflects a broader trend of hyperscale expansion into less saturated regions that offer land availability and energy access, while still benefiting from proximity to major economic hubs in the Greater Bay Area.

GLP has been active in China's data center sector since 2018 and currently operates or has under development 20 facilities totaling 1.4GW of IT capacity. The company has been aggressively scaling its digital infrastructure ambitions: in July 2026, it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Ulanqab government to jointly develop multi-gigawatt hyperscale digital infrastructure in Inner Mongolia, and in April 2025 it closed its first China-focused digital infrastructure fund, with proceeds earmarked for data center acquisitions.

The Foshan project comes on the heels of GLP's 2024 divestment of its international business, including the Ada Infrastructure data center platform, to Ares Management Corporation for $3.7 billion. The sale allowed GLP to sharpen its focus on the Chinese market, where it is now positioning itself as a full-stack provider of AI-ready infrastructure. Industry observers note that the scale and speed of this new campus underscore the intensifying competition among developers to secure hyperscale tenants in China's rapidly evolving AI and cloud landscape.