Apple Building Secret Server Farm in North Carolina

Everyone knows Apple for the iPod and iPhone, but few would believe that the company is investing £628.4 million ($1 billion USD) to build a server farm in the eastern United States.

No details about the server datacenter itself have emerged, but news of the plan has trickled out through state officials, who have been negotiating tax breaks with the Cupertino-based company.

The server farm will employ 100 people in a region hit hard by the economic downturn.

For years Apple has offered web hosting to iLife users through MobileMe. It is mainly meant for small personal sites, though, and isn’t as feature-filled as a typical web host. It is unlikely Apple will try to compete with web hosts any time soon, so it’s more likely that the servers will be used for applications with Internet capability or perhaps iTunes.

Source: Apple Insider