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Apple reportedly paid $1.7 million for a single acre beside its planned data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The 2010 sale stood out because the rural parcel was next to a project Apple expected to equip and build for more than $1 billion—not because it represented an ordinary price for farmland.

How much did Apple pay for the acre?

Data Center Knowledge reported on October 5, 2010, that Apple paid $1.7 million for one acre adjacent to its planned Maiden data center. That is a reported transaction price from a contemporary trade-publication account, not a current valuation or an independently verified appraisal. Data Center Knowledge’s account is the source for the figures below.

Why was one rural acre so expensive?

The parcel sat beside Apple’s planned 500,000-square-foot iDataCenter, a project the company expected to invest more than $1 billion in construction and equipment. In that setting, the land’s importance was tied to its location and to the larger site: securing a small neighboring parcel could help avoid complications to a project of substantial scale.

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The source reports that the owners, Donnie and Kathy Fulbright, were not eager to sell and that Apple increased its offer until they agreed. The idea that the purchase helped preserve project continuity is a reasonable interpretation of the circumstances, not a stated appraisal rationale: the account does not include a deed, independent valuation, or documentation of the parcel’s precise role in the site plan.

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How unusual was Apple’s reported price?

The same 2010 account contrasted Apple’s $1.7 million-per-acre purchase with Yahoo’s reported acquisition of data-center land in Lockport, New York, at about $8,000 per acre. These are reported prices for different parcels and projects, not a controlled comparison of equivalent land. The contrast illustrates why the Maiden acre was striking: a strategically important parcel beside a major planned facility could command a premium far removed from a rural-market baseline.

What happened to the sellers?

According to the report, the Fulbrights had bought the original site for $6,000 and had lived there for 34 years. The proceeds enabled them to buy a nearby 49-acre property with a 4,200-square-foot house and a man-made pond stocked with bass and catfish. Data Center Knowledge author Rich Miller captured the story’s contrast with the line, “Think of the catfish pond as a necessary expense in the shift to cloud computing.”

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What the story does—and does not—establish

The 2010 report presents the purchase as an unusually costly land deal shaped by strategic location, seller reluctance, and the scale of Apple’s planned investment. It does not establish a current market value for the acre, prove that Apple still owns it, or provide enough information to calculate what the parcel would be worth today.

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