Apple plans €1.7bn investment in European data centre project
TECHNOLOGY titan Apple’s shares reached a record high of $133 last night after the US group announced plans to invest €1.7bn (£1.2bn) on two massive European data centres.
Chief executive Tim Cook called the data centres: “Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date”.
Based in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland, the two data centres will run entirely on renewable energy sources to power their combined 332,000 square metres of floorspace.
“We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” said Cook.
“We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”
The two data centres will power Apple’s online services in Europe, including the iTunes Store, the App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri.
As Apple’s shares rose 2.7 per cent yesterday the iPhone-maker’s market valuation soared to nearly $755bn (£488.5bn). The strong increase has come in a little over two weeks when the group sat at a valuation of $700bn on the back of strong fourth quarter results at the end of January.