China Mobile Communications Corp (Qingdao, Shandong) is inviting designers for the first phase of a data center project in Qingdao, Shandong province, and expects to begin construction in the second half of the year.

The Internet data and business development center, set to be Shandong's largest, will be located in the Qingdao National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, according to a statement published on the Qingdao Construction Management Information Network on April 22.

A total of 3.14 billion yuan ($506.62 million) will be invested in the data center, and first phase investment is planned at about 1 billion yuan, said the announcement. The project will occupy an area of 10.87 hectares, and a floor area of 144,800 square meters.

The data center will be an important part of China Mobile's cloud computing and Internet R&D. Centers for Internet data, cloud computing, new mobile business development, training and a mobile Internet incubation will be built.

Construction of the project will last five years and is expected to bring about six billion yuan in sales revenue to the company, and contribute to Shandong's economic growth and the "Smart Shandong" program.

Earlier this month, a launch ceremony was held in the eastern coastal city for the Tsinghua-Qingdao Big Data Engineering Research Center and the Qingdao Big Data and Smart City Application Research Center, both to be located in the High-tech Zone.

Tsinghua University aims to forge a big data technological innovation highland in Qingdao through research, talent and educational cooperation with the city.