The investment comes as rivals such as Microsoft have been making significant AI and cloud investments in Asian countries such as Japan and Indonesia.
Amazon has shared plans to double its cloud infrastructure investment in Singapore by pumping $9bn into the south-east Asian economy over the next four years.
This marks the continuing expansion of its footprint outside the US and is aimed at meeting growing international demand for cloud services provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) as AI becomes more pervasive.
Announced as part of an AWS ASEAN summit held in Singapore today (7 May) and first reported by Bloomberg, the investment is also a way for Amazon to diversify its international cloud investment and avoid ongoing tensions between the US and China.
The company estimates that it will support roughly 12,300 full-time equivalent jobs in local Singapore businesses each year, as well as conduct AI workshops for more than a hundred businesses in partnership with the country’s government.
Just last week, Amazon posted strong financial results in its latest quarterly earnings report with net sales up 13pc and operating income from its cloud services nearly doubled. AWS sales were up 17pc to $25bn. President and CEO Andy Jassy celebrated a “good start to the year”.
“The combination of companies renewing their infrastructure modernisation efforts and the appeal of AWS’s AI capabilities is reaccelerating AWS’s growth rate, now at a $100bn annual revenue run rate,” Jassy said.
AWS operating income stood at $9.4bn in the first quarter, compared to just over $5bn in the same period last year. Last November, the Amazon cloud division revealed an AI assistant called Q that is designed for business environments.
Amazon has been pumping billions into generative AI to enhance its business, particularly in cloud. In March, it invested $2.75bn into Anthropic (which recently opened its first EU office in Dublin) to complete a $4bn investment commitment it made last year.
But it faces stiff competition from rivals such as Microsoft, which has been investing heavily in AI and cloud infrastructure around the world. Last week, Microsoft made a $2.2bn commitment to Malaysia over the next four years. This came after similar investment in Japan and Indonesia last month.
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