Last month, Apple announced their plans to build brand new data centers in Europe, which will be powered solely by renewables and will have the lowest environmental impact among all other data centers that belong to the company. But is there a hidden agenda?
The two data centers are planned to emerge in Ireland and Denmark, and they are expected to be fully operational sometime in 2017. The cost of their construction will total around $2 billion. The two facilities will run popular i-services such as Siri, iMessage and apps in the App Store. The power will be provided solely by wind and other green fuel sources, just like the newest data centers of the company elsewhere.
The Apple data centers, which will have super fancy, state of the art technology and design, will spread over areas of 166,000 square meters each, and are likely to generate hundreds of new jobs. Apple is also looking to help not only the communities in the areas, but also add an extra environmental benefit.
In Denmark, the Apple data center will generate heat that will be provided to local residents. In Ireland, the facility will be constructed over an area previously used for commercial forestry, where now the tech-giant will initiate projects to restore native trees and provide space for outdoor education.
However, many speculations are circulating in the air, including some claiming that the choice of Ireland as building location is made based on possibility to avoid taxes on profit. Apparently, the European Commission is already investigating in much finer detail the deals that the government of Ireland is making with international companies.
But, all this hassle is not so much directed towards the governments of the host countries. In fact, the investigation is directed towards Apple, who are believed to have not paid taxes on a large sum, which is around $54 billion in profits. Along with the i-tech-giant, Google and Amazon, have also been accused with global tax avoidance, and are desperately trying to fight back. It seems, the trick will not pass in Europe, where ongoing fierce debates over tax-paying residency are taking place as we speak.
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