Internet giant Amazon’s cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services, said on Wednesday that it plans to spend 8 billion pounds ($10.45 billion) in the United Kingdom over the next five years to build, operate and maintain data centres.
The company expects the investment project to contribute 14 billion pounds to the country’s gross domestic product by the end of 2028 and to support more than 14,000 jobs at British businesses.
The project represents a step-up in the pace of Amazon’s investment in Britain. Since 2022 AWS has invested 3 billion pounds in facilities in London and Manchester.
“Our team that builds our data centres globally take into account multiple levers that they have to look at before they can decide where to put data centres … from power to water to the local environment,” Tanuja Randery, a managing director at AWS, told Reuters.
She singled out use of artificial intelligence as among the factors driving demand for cloud services.
AWS has been investing heavily across Europe, announcing a 15.7 billion euros investment in Spain earlier this year and another 7.8 billion euros in Germany.
Analysts and executives say many big corporate customers have started spending again on cloud computing after pausing last year, as interest in artificial intelligence drives a rebound of growth in the $270 billion cloud infrastructure market.
The investment was welcomed by British finance minister Rachel Reeves, who has been courting foreign investors ahead of an investment summit on Oct. 14.
Britain’s government said the data centres would be located to support demand in London and areas to the west, but that Amazon would not disclose the exact locations for security reasons.
“The government is also actively engaged in conversations with the company about investments in other parts of the UK,” the finance ministry said.
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First Published: Sep 11 2024 | 8:15 AM IST