Apple to Spend Nearly $2 Billion on New European Data Centers

Apple said that it would spend nearly $2 billion to build its first two data centers in Europe, the latest US tech giant to open computing centers in the region amid a tightening regulatory environment. The two data centers, each covering 166,000 square meters, will be built in Denmark and Ireland, the latter serving as Apple’s European headquarters. The data centers will go online in 2017, the company said. They will be used for a range of Apple products, including iTunes, messaging and Siri, its software that recognizes some spoken commands.