AWS to invest €8.8bn in Germany to meet growing cloud demand

Last month, AWS said it planned to invest €7.8bn in Germany between now and 2040 and launch its first European Sovereign Cloud project by the end of 2025.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed plans to invest €8.8bn into its existing cloud infrastructure in Germany, its second major investment commitment in the country in a month.

In an announcement today (19 June), the cloud services arm of e-commerce giant Amazon said the additional investment – which forms the majority of a €10bn investment from Amazon in the country – will be made in the Frankfurt region of Germany to meet growing customer demand for cloud services.

Last month, AWS said it plans to invest €7.8bn in Germany between now and 2040 and launch its first European Sovereign Cloud AWS Region in the state of Brandenburg by the end of 2025.

Amazon said that the latest investment is estimated to create more than 15,000 new jobs in Germany annually from 2024 to 2026. Between 2014 and 2023, the company claims AWS has invested €9.6bn and contributed an estimated €18.4bn to Germany’s GDP (gross domestic product).

AWS has a strong presence in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, with corporate offices across Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Walldorf. At the EU level, Amazon claims to have invested more than €150bn since 2010, and it employs more than 150,000 people in permanent roles across the European Single Market.

Last month, AWS said it plans to create “highly skilled permanent roles” to build and operate its European Sovereign Cloud, including software engineers, systems developers and solutions architects.

“This investment reinforces our commitment to offer customers the most advanced set of sovereignty controls, privacy safeguards and security features available in the cloud,” said Max Peterson, AWS vice-president of Sovereign Cloud, said at the time.

“We’re investing heavily in new local talent and infrastructure, which will help provide the operational sovereignty our customers require. This is an exciting milestone, and we’re looking forward to the ways that our customers and partners across Europe will drive further innovation with the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.”

Last week, AWS announced supports for early-stage start-ups worth $230m as it looks to fund the second cohort of its generative AI accelerator. And just last month, the e-commerce giant posted strong financial results in its latest quarterly earnings report with net sales up 13pc and operating income from AWS nearly doubled.

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