Updated at 2pm

APPLE IS BUILDING its first data centres outside the US… and has chosen Athenry, Galway as one of the locations.

The €1.7 billion investment will also see a data centre constructed in Denmark’s central Jutland.

They will both power Apple’s online services, including the iTunes Store, the App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for European customers.

The 166,000-sq-metre centre will be built on a Coillte-owned greenfield site at Derrydonnell. According to IDA Ireland, the two state agencies worked together “on providing a property solution to secure the Apple investment announced today”.

Apple says it is recovering land previously used for growing and harvesting non-native trees. It has promised to restore native trees to the forest and power the centres with 100% renewable energy.

“The project will also provide an outdoor education space for local schools, as well as a walking trail for the community,” it said in the statement.

CEO Tim Cook said it was the biggest project in Europe to date, adding that hundreds of jobs will be created.

IDA Ireland believes there will be 300 jobs provided throughout the multiple phases of the project.

The announcement has been welcomed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. ”It is a very significant investment in the West of Ireland and is fantastic news for Athenry with significant knock-on benefits for the region,” he said this morning.

At an event in Dublin this afternoon, he said he said he had had two “very positive meetings” with Cook – in Cork and in California.

He said those meetings had been an ideal opportunity to stress “the opportunities that exist for that kind of development here in Ireland”.

Read: These are the startups Ireland’s newest business leaders have been coming up with

More: Crisp sandwiches, juicing… what’s the next food trend to hit Ireland?

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