North Carolina’s foothills continue to transform into the latest hotspot for Silicon Valley’s tech giants. Apple, Google, and Facebook are just a few companies investing billions of dollars to build massive data centers in that area. Apple’s facility, which is just off U.S. 321 in Maiden, North Carolina, first gained attention back in June 2011 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. During what would be his final keynote, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs name-dropped the small town. ‘This is our third data center we just completed,’ Jobs said, as he showed pictures of the facility. ‘It’s in Maiden, North Carolina. This is what it looks like. It’s rather large.’ More than seven years later, an initial promise by Apple to spend $1 billion morphed into a more than $3 billion investment.

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