Apple converts sapphire factory into data center

Apple is going to convert the factory of the bankrupt GT Advanced Technologies into a data center. The company is allocating 2 billion dollars, approximately 1.75 billion euros, for this. GT Advanced produced sapphire glass, but it failed to produce good quality glass for the iPhone 6.

The conversion of GT Advanced Technologies’ empty factory in Arizona into a large data center should create 300 to 500 jobs, Bloomberg writes. After completion, Apple plans to hire approximately 150 people to manage it. It is a central command center for the management of Apple’s worldwide network of computing centers. According to the iPhone manufacturer, all equipment in the data center will be powered entirely with green energy, in which solar energy should play an important role.

GT Advanced Technologies filed for bankruptcy in October last year. The sapphire glass maker had failed to produce enough quality sapphire glass for the iPhone 6. The company could have produced only 10 percent of the demanded quantity for Apple. The iPhone 6 was released with ‘regular’ Gorilla Glass.

In a lawsuit between the two companies that followed the bankruptcy, it was decided to sell the smelting furnaces, among other things. Apple, in turn, promised to bring jobs from Asia back to the US. The company has therefore now decided to invest 2 billion dollars in a new data center.