(Telecompaper) Apple sold USD 6.5 billion in bonds on 2 February, including a round of 30-year debt that will pay 3.5 percent per year, the Wall Street Journal reported. In April 2013, Apple sold USD 17 billion in bonds, when a 30-year bond yielded about 3.9 percent. Apple's deal is the largest US high-grade corporate-bond sale so far this year, according to S&P Capital IQ LCD. Apple said in the prospectus that it will put proceeds towards general corporate purposes, including share buybacks. The company also announced its intention to invest USD 2 billion in the creation of a new data centre at a facility in Mesa, Arizona, the New York Times reported. The State of Arizona said Apple announced the plans after abandoning plans to produce sapphire materials. GT Advanced Technologies had been contracted to make sapphire screens for iPhones, among other things. After GTAT declared bankruptcy in October, Apple released it latest iPhones without sapphire. Apple said that the multibillion-dollar investment in the Arizona data centre was one of its most significant investments ever, creating 600 engineering and construction jobs. The centre will be partly used as a central command centre for monitoring Apple's other data centres around the world, the company said. The facility measures 1.3 million feet.