Amazon pledges $9 billion to double its cloud investments in Singapore

On By Vaseline

(May 7): Amazon.com Inc plans to spend US$9 billion (RM42.66 billion) to expand its cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore, the latest global technology company to boost investment in Southeast Asia.

The investment, to be made over the next four years, will double Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) investments in Singapore and help the company meet growing customer demand for cloud services and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). the company said on Tuesday.

AWS, which leases software and data storage from massive server farms, has expanded its presence outside the US in recent years, with much of that investment focused on Asian markets. Companies from Microsoft Corp to Apple Inc are also growing in the Southeast Asian market of more than 650 million people, partly to diversify outside China and reduce geopolitical risks amid tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Including the investment in Singapore, AWS has announced plans this year to spend about $35 billion outside the US, including in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. The company is also setting up clusters of data centers in Malaysia and Thailand.

Amazon said last month that AWS is on track to generate more than $100 billion in revenue for the first time within a year. Amazon executives say AWS is benefiting from enterprise technology modernization projects and demand for AI services.

The announcement came as part of an AWS Asean Summit in Singapore, where AI will take center stage with a range of initiatives from the US company. The city-state was the first data center region that AWS established in Asia.

Singapore has become a hub for US companies in Asia, such as Meta Platforms Inc and Alphabet Inc, and is seen as a gateway to the broader Southeast Asia region, which is expected to grow rapidly.

Microsoft, Amazon’s biggest rival in cloud services, toured local economies last week, with CEO Satya Nadella announcing a series of new investments and initiatives for Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.