Amazon.com plans to spend $9 billion expanding its cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore, the latest global tech company to boost investment in Southeast Asia.
The outlay, to be made over the next four years, doubles Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) investment in Singapore and helps it meet growing customer demand for cloud services and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence, the company said on Tuesday.
AWS, which sells software and data storage for rent from massive server farms, has been expanding its footprint outside the US in recent years, with much of that investment targeting Asian markets.
Companies from Microsoft to Apple are also growing in the Southeast Asian market of more than 650 million people, partly to diversify away from China and reduce geopolitical risks amid tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Including the Singapore investment, AWS has this year announced plans to spend about $35 billion outside the United States, including in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. The company is also setting up clusters of data centres in Malaysia and Thailand.
Amazon last month said AWS was on track to bring in more than $100 billion in sales over the course of a year for the first time. Amazon executives say AWS is benefiting from corporate technology modernisation projects as well as demand for AI services.
The announcement came as part of an AWS Asean Summit in Singapore, where AI took centre stage with a series of initiatives from the US company. The city-state was the first data centre region AWS established in Asia.
“This investment will create a ripple effect across Singapore by increasing economic growth and cloud adoption,” said AWS country manager Priscilla Chong.
Amazon estimates that its planned investment will support an average of 12,300 full-time equivalent jobs in local Singapore businesses each year. The company will also conduct workshops for more than 100 businesses in two years, partnering with the Singapore government to help small businesses leverage generative AI.
Singapore has grown into a hub for US businesses in Asia, such as the Facebook parent Meta Platforms and the Google parent Alphabet Inc, and is seen as a gateway to the broader Southeast Asia region, which is expected to grow at a rapid clip.
Microsoft, Amazon’s biggest rival in cloud services, is also beefing up its presence in the region. Chief executive officer Satya Nadella last week announced a series of new investments and initiatives for Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.