:no_upscale():quality(75))
Apple is awaiting approval to manufacture high-tech equipment for data centers in Mesa, AZ. The tech company also applied for special status to designate the area as a foreign trade zone, allowing the products to be exempt from duty payments, reports Business Insider.
Manufacturing will be limited to equipment for internal operations related to its data centers, such as routers, network switches, server housing and enclosures. Apple will build and configure servers in Mesa before sending them to other U.S. data centers.
The tech giant already owns a massive global command center in Mesa that stores and serves iCloud backups and iTunes. While Apple typically uses third-party vendors for cloud operations, it has been moving toward running its own servers in-house.
Apple plans to start with about 150 jobs at the Mesa command center, including an on-site executive. [BI]
