Apple to build $1bn data center in Vietnam: report   Apple's iPhones are seen on sale at a store in Ho Chi Minh City. Tuoi Tre Apple Inc. is poised for its first-ever investment in Vietnam by setting up a US$1 billion data center in Hanoi, a local business newspaper reported on Wednesday. The U.S. tech titan is “completing necessary investment procedures, and looking for a suitable location for the facility,” Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep (Business Forum) said, citing its own source. Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep is the media organ of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), one of Vietnam’s largest trade promotion agencies. The reported data center will serve Apple’s Asia operations and may also feature research and development (R&D) activities, according to the newspaper. While it is unclear when the Hanoi project of Apple will begin, the decision is seen as an appreciation by the U.S. tech firm toward the business environment in Vietnam. If Apple initiates investment in Vietnam, other major investors may follow suit, adding to the attractiveness of the Southeast Asian country’s investment environment. Last year Apple earmarked more than $8 billion, or three percent of its revenue for the fiscal year ending September 2015, for R&D, according to Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep. The iPhone maker is currently runs R&D centers in the UK, China, Taiwan, the U.S., and Israel and has began construction of a new facility in Japan. The company’s R&D center in India is scheduled for opening this June, according to Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep. Many of Apple’s rivals in the fields of tech gadgets, such as Samsung and LG from South Korea, and U.S. giant Microsoft, already have operations in Vietnam. Samsung’s investment in the country has totaled some $11.2 billion, with two multibillion mobile devices and electronics components production complexes in Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh in northern Vietnam. The South Korea electronics behemoth also runs an R&D center in Hanoi, where some 1,450 Vietnamese engineers are working around the clock to support and develop apps and software for Samsung mobile devices. In the meantime, LG Electronics has completed the initial stage of a $1.5 billion production complex in the northern city of Hai Phong, while Microsoft has relocated its mobile production in factories in China, Hungary, and Mexico to Bac Ninh since 2014. TUOI TRE NEWS