Apple confirms North Carolina Plans

It may be no large surprise after all of the hype that has attended the wooing of Apple by the State of North Carolina, but Apple has confirmed plans to build a large data center in that state.

Apple was welcomed to the state in a meaningful way when North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue signed a bill giving the Cupertino computer giant a state tax credit worth $46 million. Although the Carolina House of Representatives passed the tax bill easily by a vote of 80-34, not everyone was happy with the tax credit plan. House Minority Leader Rep. Paul Stam was quoted as saying, “They’re playing us. And they’re going to keep playing us as long as you agree to be played. They’ll either come or they won’t come, but whether they come I can virtually assure you it will not depend upon whether you pass this bill.”

Apple representative Susan Lundgren seemed thrilled with the plan and the arrangements. She said, “We’re looking forward to building a new data center in North Carolina, and we appreciate the efforts of Gov. Perdue and state lawmakers who helped make it possible. Our teams are getting started right away to acquire a site for the data center, and we plan to begin construction soon.”

Although the facility will have only 50 full-time employees, the NC Commerce Department says that when all new jobs, such as maintenance, are included the actual total at the data center will be about 250, according to a CNET story. The department also calculates that the $1 billion Apple investment will mean a total of 3,000 jobs in the economy of the region in which the facility is located.

Governor Perdue had the following to say about the impact of the data center: “North Carolina continues to be a prime location for growing and expanding global technology companies. We welcome Apple to North Carolina and look forward to working with the company as it begins providing a significant economic boost to local communities and the state.”

In an economy as sluggish as today’s, not many companies are expanding as aggressively as Apple. Then again, not many companies are doing as well as Apple is despite that less than stellar economy. This is a plum for the state of North Carolina, and a big step towards Apple’s participation in the cloud computing economy of the future.

• 

• Apple considering huge North Carolina server farm
• Apple settles on site for North Carolina data center
• NC governor inks tax law, says Apple data center coming [u]
• Apple, live from North Carolina
• Apple N.C. data center for cloud computing?