Apple Will Invest $2 Billion in Arizona

Apple will invest $2 million in the state of Arizona by converting a sapphire glass plant into a data center.

The new Apple data center is going to be set up in Mesa, Arizona. In 2013, Apple alongside GT Advanced Industries set up a plant that manufactured scratch resistant sapphire screens for Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

Unfortunately, GT Advanced Industries didn’t have a long life and in October of 2014 it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The reason many believe GT Advanced Industries filed for bankruptcy was the fact that Apple failed to equip its new iPhones with sapphire glass. The plant that was owned by Apple closed down and now Apple will invest $2 billion to transform the factory into a massive data center.

Rachel Wolf, Apple’s spokesperson, released a statement on Monday in which she revealed that the data center project is one of the largest investments Apple has ever made.

The massive investment is going to stretch over 10 years and Apple is going to sign a 30 year commitment that it is going to keep the data center running. A spokesperson from Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey, confirmed this via email.

Doug Ducey himself stated via Twitter the news that Apple will invest $2 billion in Mesa, Arizona. It was also revealed that the center will house around 150 full-time Apple employees and it will create between 300 and 500 additional jobs for the people of Arizona.

The new high-tech facility is going to be more than just a data center, it’s also going to be a command center to managing other networks and data centers that Apple has and deal with traffic from services such as Siri, iCloud and iTunes.

Apple will invest $2 billion in Mesa, Arizona and this is going to create around 700 construction and engineering jobs. Apple also revealed that the new plant is going to be powered mostly by solar energy.

GT Advanced Industries is rumored to be laying off around 650 employees at the plant, following the winding down of production.

Image Source: AZCentral