Google Inc said it will invest $300 million in its Hong Kong data center, due to come online in early 2013 after the company broke ground on Thursday.

The $300 million investment includes the cost of land, construction and technical equipment, with the facility employing about 25 full-time staff when fully operational, Google said in a statement.

We're working as quickly as we can to get this facility operational so we can keep up with rapid growth in capacity demand across the region, Simon Chang, head of Google's hardware operations in Asia, said in the statement.

In September, Google said it planned to build data centers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, TO be operational within 1-2 years once construction begins.

(Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Chris Lewis)

Google Google inc