Apple Considering Building Huge New Data Center in Oregon
OregonLive.com reports that Apple is currently deciding whether to commit to building a major new data center in Prineville, Oregon that would complement its newly-opened facility in Maiden, North Carolina.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's first self-built mega data center in Maiden, North Carolina went from a secret project spotted via satellite imagery in June 2011 to a confirmed, newly opened facility by December. With that site live, OregonLive reports Apple is now weighing a second major build in Prineville, Oregon.
The Prineville plan is unconfirmed — it is a siting decision in progress, not a signed commitment — but the fact that Apple is evaluating a second owned campus so soon after Maiden signals how much capacity its online services are expected to consume.
First-order effects
- If Apple commits, Prineville becomes its second self-built mega data center alongside Maiden, roughly doubling owned capacity and putting construction spending directly into Crook County.
- Prineville and Crook County officials gain a potential marquee anchor tenant whose power draw and property-tax base hinge entirely on Apple's go/no-go call.
Second-order effects
- Once Apple's siting process is public, other low-power-cost rural markets in the region are pushed to sharpen tax-abatement and utility packages to stay in contention for future rounds.
- Rival consumer-internet operators get a new benchmark: Apple building owned capacity rather than renting it raises the bar for how much headroom competitors must provision ahead of demand.
Third-order effects
- If the Maiden-plus-Prineville pattern holds, large consumer cloud players consolidate around owned, purpose-built campuses sited for cheap power instead of leased colocation — a structural shift in who controls internet infrastructure.
The trend: Consumer internet companies are shifting from rented server capacity to owned mega data centers sited where power is cheapest, and Apple's Maiden-to-Prineville sequence is one data point in that move.