Amazon.com (AMZN.O) recently announced its intention to invest nearly $9 billion in Singapore to expand its cloud infrastructure. The announcement was made during the Amazon Web Services (AWS) ASEAN Summit on Tuesday (May 7).
Last year, the company had announced similar billion-dollar investments in Malaysia and Thailand.
With an investment of $8.888 billion over the next four years, Amazon plans to expand the infrastructure of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) subsidiary in Singapore. This is to meet growing customer demand for cloud services and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
The investment is expected to create 12,000 new jobs in Singapore annually and support the country's GDP of $23.7 billion. The company also plans to conduct more than 100 workshops for businesses and work with the government to expand the use of AI by small businesses.
The announcement of this investment comes shortly after rival Microsoft, AWS' biggest competitor in cloud services, recently announced billion-dollar investments in Southeast Asia. CEO Satya Nadella revealed plans for a $1.7 billion investment in Indonesia, $2.2 billion in Malaysia and the opening of a new data center in Thailand during a regional tour last week.
Since 2010, Singapore has been Amazon's first data center in Asia, supporting digital services for various industries, including Grab, financial institutions, startups, and the public sector. AWS has invested SG$11.5 billion in Singapore through 2023.
Despite being one of the largest data centers in the world, Singapore postponed new data center projects in 2019 due to environmental concerns, prompting some operators to build in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Singapore has restarted the development of a new data center with higher green standards after inviting proposals from various parties, including Equinix, GDS, Microsoft, ByteDance and AirTrunk. The Singapore government is committed to continuing to work with the industry and increasing capacity year on year, although land allocation remains a major concern due to land constraints and a focus on the green economy.
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