Apple has at last chosen a location for a North Carolina server farm, reports say. Though the company confirmed intentions for an iDataCenter on June 3rd, with plans to invest $1 billion in the state over the course of nine years, it has not so far announced a specific location. Representatives for the town of Maiden, however, have scheduled a July 6th press conference, in which they are expected to formally acknowledge a deal with Apple.

The conference should validate earlier claims, which have suggested that the facility will be built in Catawba County. Legislation favoring Apple mandated that tax benefits would only come if the company invested in an impoverished rural area such as Catawba, which has an unemployment rate of roughly 15.5 percent. A $1 billion datacenter investment could generate 3,000 jobs in Catawba, according to North Carolina's Department of Commerce, including construction positions and other supporting roles.

The new building is set to become Apple's east-coast operations hub, and exploit the three-hour time difference with the company's Cupertino headquarters. It should "facilitate communications between European operations/sales and California for data transmission," an Apple document reads.