In a surprise move, Apple today announced that it has shelved its plans to open a second data center in Denmark which was to be completely powered by renewable energy. The project was going to reportedly cost the company $291 million. Instead, the company is now looking to sell the 700-acre land and exit the market completely.

The news was posted by the Aabenraa municipality on their website. The announcement “was completely unexpected” for the Aabenraa Municipality as well as they had been working closely with Apple over the last few years to turn the site suitable for one of the world’s largest data center. The decision seems to be a strategic one taken by Apple’s headquarters in the United States.

There is no clear reason as to why Apple has decided to back out of building a data center in Denmark especially since it acquired the land for the project in 2017 itself. It is an odd move from the company as it definitely needs to expand its data center given the potential growth of its services business in the coming few months and years. Last year, Apple had canceled its plan of opening a $1 billion data center in Ireland after opposition from locals due to environmental issues which delayed the construction at the project site.

Apple will likely work on expanding its various data centers in the United States as it now seems to have all but canceled all its plans of building new data centers in Europe.

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