patanfrana
24-05-2009, 11:12
Una server farm, un edificio in cui localizzare migliaia di server, è questo quello che potrebbe costruire Apple nello Stato del North Carolina (USA) nei prossimi anni. Secondo le indiscrezioni, infatti, lo Stato avrebbe indetto una serie di agevolazioni fiscali per le società che investiranno nelle città disagiate come Catawba e Cleveland.
Così come ha fatto Google lo scorso anno, anche Apple potrebbe costruire la sua server farm per un investimento da 1 miliardo di dollari da spalmare in 9 anni e ricevere agevolazioni fiscali per 46 milioni di dollari.
La server farm potrebbe essere utilizzata per il servizio MobileMe e Push Server. La società al momento non ha commentato la notizia.
via Melamorsicata (http://www.melamorsicata.it/)
RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina lawmakers are pushing to give Apple Inc. a multi-million dollar tax break should the company bring an East Coast computer server farm to the state - an estimated $1 billion investment, according to a state official with knowledge of the recruitment efforts.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the state's recruitment efforts are confidential.
Spokeswomen for Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple and the state Commerce Department, the lead agency in business development, declined to comment.
While it has been known that North Carolina lawmakers were working on changing tax rules to benefit one company, the name of the outfit has been kept secret. The state official said Catawba and Cleveland counties are potential sites.
The tax changes would affect the way corporate income taxes are calculated by giving breaks to companies with a relatively small share of U.S. sales in North Carolina but which have large shares of their nationwide property and payroll in the state.
The House Finance Committee on Thursday altered the proposed tax change so companies could qualify only if they locate in one of North Carolina's poorest counties, provide health insurance, meet a wage standard, and forego other state grants or tax breaks.
"The bill ensures it's going to go to an area of high unemployment. This reflects concerns many of us have had about economic development policy, that priority should be given to the neediest counties," committee chairman Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, said Friday.
The tax breaks could be worth about $46 million in the next decade, assuming the company reaches its $1 billion investment target within nine years of starting, according to a memo by legislative fiscal staffers that does not identify the company. The memo said no current company meets the criteria to receive the tax break and the Commerce Department knows of just one with the potential to qualify.
"It's very specific to this project," Luebke said of the tax breaks.
The conditions adopted Thursday, if approved by both legislative chambers and the governor, would push the project from the state's urbanized corridor connecting Raleigh to Greensboro and Charlotte. In 2007, Google Inc. committed to spending $600 million for a server farm near Lenoir in the western North Carolina foothills. It opened last year.
State and local governments offered Google an incentive package worth up to $260 million over 30 years, one of the largest incentives packages in state history, to land the data complex. If the Apple project also remained active for 30 years, its server farm could save more than $300 million on its corporate taxes, based on legislative staffers' estimates that the tax break would mean a savings of $3 million from 2011 to 2018, and then $12.5 million each year after that.
Google, Microsoft and other technology giants have responded to booming Internet use by building server farms: huge, climate-controlled computer warehouses that can store enormous amounts of information and process vast flows of data. They are heavy users of power and water and are usually spread over large spaces.
Though the Apple site is initially expected to employ fewer than 100 full-time workers, legislators said the potential prize was so juicy it justified changing the state's corporate tax formula to benefit a single company. North Carolina's unemployment rate remained at 10.8 percent in April, marking a third-straight month it was in the double-digits, the state Employment Security Commission reported Friday. Four non-urban counties have unemployment rates of more than 16 percent.
"Given our economic situation in this state, with the rising unemployment, this really is critical," said Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, before the committee approved the bill and its changes.
The bill, which passed the Senate earlier this month, is scheduled for a vote by the full House on Tuesday.
via Charlotte Observer (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/136/story/740622.html)
Insomma, pare che i 29 miliardi di dollari di liquidità inizino ad essere messi a fruttare, e probabilmente per spingere il Cloud Computing che pare essere il futuro anche per Cupertino.
Così come ha fatto Google lo scorso anno, anche Apple potrebbe costruire la sua server farm per un investimento da 1 miliardo di dollari da spalmare in 9 anni e ricevere agevolazioni fiscali per 46 milioni di dollari.
La server farm potrebbe essere utilizzata per il servizio MobileMe e Push Server. La società al momento non ha commentato la notizia.
via Melamorsicata (http://www.melamorsicata.it/)
RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina lawmakers are pushing to give Apple Inc. a multi-million dollar tax break should the company bring an East Coast computer server farm to the state - an estimated $1 billion investment, according to a state official with knowledge of the recruitment efforts.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the state's recruitment efforts are confidential.
Spokeswomen for Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple and the state Commerce Department, the lead agency in business development, declined to comment.
While it has been known that North Carolina lawmakers were working on changing tax rules to benefit one company, the name of the outfit has been kept secret. The state official said Catawba and Cleveland counties are potential sites.
The tax changes would affect the way corporate income taxes are calculated by giving breaks to companies with a relatively small share of U.S. sales in North Carolina but which have large shares of their nationwide property and payroll in the state.
The House Finance Committee on Thursday altered the proposed tax change so companies could qualify only if they locate in one of North Carolina's poorest counties, provide health insurance, meet a wage standard, and forego other state grants or tax breaks.
"The bill ensures it's going to go to an area of high unemployment. This reflects concerns many of us have had about economic development policy, that priority should be given to the neediest counties," committee chairman Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, said Friday.
The tax breaks could be worth about $46 million in the next decade, assuming the company reaches its $1 billion investment target within nine years of starting, according to a memo by legislative fiscal staffers that does not identify the company. The memo said no current company meets the criteria to receive the tax break and the Commerce Department knows of just one with the potential to qualify.
"It's very specific to this project," Luebke said of the tax breaks.
The conditions adopted Thursday, if approved by both legislative chambers and the governor, would push the project from the state's urbanized corridor connecting Raleigh to Greensboro and Charlotte. In 2007, Google Inc. committed to spending $600 million for a server farm near Lenoir in the western North Carolina foothills. It opened last year.
State and local governments offered Google an incentive package worth up to $260 million over 30 years, one of the largest incentives packages in state history, to land the data complex. If the Apple project also remained active for 30 years, its server farm could save more than $300 million on its corporate taxes, based on legislative staffers' estimates that the tax break would mean a savings of $3 million from 2011 to 2018, and then $12.5 million each year after that.
Google, Microsoft and other technology giants have responded to booming Internet use by building server farms: huge, climate-controlled computer warehouses that can store enormous amounts of information and process vast flows of data. They are heavy users of power and water and are usually spread over large spaces.
Though the Apple site is initially expected to employ fewer than 100 full-time workers, legislators said the potential prize was so juicy it justified changing the state's corporate tax formula to benefit a single company. North Carolina's unemployment rate remained at 10.8 percent in April, marking a third-straight month it was in the double-digits, the state Employment Security Commission reported Friday. Four non-urban counties have unemployment rates of more than 16 percent.
"Given our economic situation in this state, with the rising unemployment, this really is critical," said Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, before the committee approved the bill and its changes.
The bill, which passed the Senate earlier this month, is scheduled for a vote by the full House on Tuesday.
via Charlotte Observer (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/136/story/740622.html)
Insomma, pare che i 29 miliardi di dollari di liquidità inizino ad essere messi a fruttare, e probabilmente per spingere il Cloud Computing che pare essere il futuro anche per Cupertino.