AWS to invest $12.7B to expand its cloud infra in India by 2030

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Thursday said it is committing $12.7 billion to expand its cloud infrastructure in India by 2030 in order to meet growing customer demand for its cloud services.

“Today we’re announcing an additional planned investment of $12.7 billion for cloud infrastructure in India. That will bring our total investment to $16.4 billion by 2030 — boosting the country’s GDP, supporting tens of thousands of jobs, and continuing to help customers innovate,” AWS CEO Adam Selipsky said in a tweet.

The new investment, according to the company, is expected to add $23.3 billion to the country’s GDP by 2030, generating 131,700 jobs annually for the next seven years.

The jobs will include roles in construction, facility maintenance, engineering, and telecommunications among others, it added.

AWS’ announcement to invest an additional $12.7 billion in India comes just five months after the company launched its second region in Hyderabad and said it was committing $4.4 billion to scale it till the end of 2030.

Before announcing the second Hyderabad region in November last year, the company had already invested $3.7 billion in India since 2016, including the launch and expansion of its Mumbai region.

AWS claims that it has trained more than four million people since 2017 via various programs, including AWS Skill Builder, which offers digital cloud skills to anyone with an Internet connection, and AWS re/Start, which is a full-time, classroom-based skills development and training program that prepares individuals for careers in the cloud.

“AWS re/Start has connected over 98% of all program graduates in India with employment opportunities across organizations including Accenture, Capgemini, CloudKinetics, Cloudreach, Cognizant, Hays Group, Mphasis, and Unilever,” the company said in a statement.

The company’s customers in India include the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, Ashok Leyland, Axis Bank, HDFC Life, Havmor, Qube Cinema, Narayana Nethralaya, BankBazaar, HirePro, M2P, and Yubi.

The new investment plans in India follow the company’s announcement to launch a new cloud region in Malaysia and invest $6 billion in the country over the next 14 years.

When operational, the new region in Malaysia will become AWS’ 11th region in the Asia Pacific. The other regions in APAC are based in India, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia.

Globally, the company has a total of 96 availability zones across 30 geographic locations and has plans to launch 15 more availability zones. It also plans to add five more AWS regions in Australia, Canada, Israel, Thailand, and New Zealand.