Apple’s Project Morgan data center in Waukee, Iowa, reached its most significant milestone to date in October 2024, when the company confirmed to the Des Moines Register that the first building on the campus was fully operational. The facility now supports North American users of iCloud, the App Store, Apple Music, and iMessage, marking the conclusion of a construction and approval process that stretched nearly seven years from the original 2017 announcement.

Wetland Restoration and Community Dollars Signal Deeper Local Commitment

Beyond the operational building, Apple moved in August 2024 to rehabilitate excess land surrounding the campus into a prairie pothole wetland restoration area, complete with walking paths for public access. On the financial side, the city of Waukee confirmed the single operational data center building generates $500,000 annually for the city’s Public Improvement Fund, a figure that will grow with each additional building brought online. Apple has contributed $5.5 million to community projects to date, including the $4 million Triumph Park recreational facility completed in June 2023, with roughly $100 million remaining on its total community commitment. This type of community-linked hyperscale development is also emerging in Canada, where the Bell AI Fabric Sherwood data centre project has named Bird Construction as lead partner for a 300 MW facility, signalling how large-scale AI-driven data infrastructure is increasingly being delivered alongside local economic participation frameworks.

Project Overview

• Project Name: Apple Data Center Campus, Waukee (Project Morgan)
• Location: 2995 W. Hickman Road, Rural Municipality of Waukee, Iowa (18 miles west of Des Moines)
• Developer / Owner: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)
• Total Cost / Value: US$1.375 billion (original announced investment)
• Scale / Capacity: Up to 6 data center buildings totaling approximately 1.97 million sq ft; first building (WKE.01) is 315,773 sq ft
• Construction Start: 2022 (after multiple delays from original 2018 target)
• Expected Completion: Full campus buildout timeline not publicly confirmed; five remaining buildings (WKE.02 to WKE.06) require additional planning approvals
• Funding / Financing: Apple self-funded; US$208 million in state and local incentives including a 71% property tax abatement over 20 years worth approximately $188 million from Waukee
• Current Status: First building (WKE.01) operational as of October 2024; wetland restoration application filed August 2024; remaining five buildings subject to future planning approvals
• Key Milestone: First building confirmed operational October 2024, supporting iCloud, App Store, Apple Music, and iMessage for North American users

Project Team

• Apple Inc. — Developer, Owner, and Operator
• City of Waukee Planning and Zoning Commission — Planning Approvals Authority
• Waukee City Council — Final Approval and Incentive Agreement Authority
• Iowa Economic Development Authority — State Incentive Program Administration
• Bravo Real Estate — Land transaction partner (per 2017 council agreement)
• Dallas County — Minimum Assessment Agreement Signatory (2023)
• Iowa Governor’s Office — State-level endorsement and incentive coordination

Reported 12th February 2022: Apple wants to build up to 2 million square feet of data centre space at its future facility in Waukee, Iowa, according to site plans submitted with the local planning commission. The application comes more than four years after Apple launched the Waukee project, which envisions a complex with up to six data centre structures, each about the length of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. Each building will be 315,773 square feet, bringing the total potential size of the site to almost 1.97 million square feet when combined with an administration building and maintenance facilities.

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Apple’s proposals for a data center in Waukee will be reviewed by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in the coming days. The “Project Morgan” data center project is estimated to provide approximately 500 construction and operating employment in Waukee. Apple also contributes to community infrastructure projects, such as the development of a 66-acre leisure park. Apple had previously intended to begin building in 2018 and open the facility in 2020. There have been several delays, and Apple once stated that the project may not be completed until 2027. Local leaders in Waukee, however, report that Apple has subsequently stated that it hopes to begin building in 2022.

More on the Apple Iowa data centre

Since 2017, the number of hyperscale data centers has rapidly increased, with several cloud estates reaching 1 million square feet of size and 100 megawatts of capacity. This is evidence of the thriving Internet economy, which has played a bigger part in daily life throughout the COVID-19 epidemic. Apple’s data center infrastructure is used to enable iCloud storage, the iPhone AppStore, and the transmission of music, podcasts, and video. The impending activation of the Apple project comes at a time when Iowa is experiencing a surge in data center construction, with Meta announcing plans to expand its Altoona campus to 5 million square feet and Google announcing that it has now invested more than $5 billion in its Council Bluffs cloud campus.