Apple is spending $2 billion on new European data centers

Apple’s cloud is getting bigger. The company announced today that it will spend more than $1.9 billion (€1.7 billion) on two new data centers in Europe. They’ll be built in Galway, Ireland and Denmark’s Jutland to power Apple’s services for its European customers, including Siri, iMessage, Maps and the iTunes Store. That expenditure makes it Apple’s largest project in Europe to date. Each facility will measure 166,000 square meters (almost 1.8 million square feet), and they’re expected to come online in 2017. Like the company’s other data centers, the new European facilities will be run on renewable energy sources. Apple will also use them to give back to the community – the center in Denmark will be set up to capture excess heat and use that to warm nearby homes, while the Irish data center will be used to provide an outdoor education space for local schools and a public walking trail.