(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. plans to spend $9 billion expanding its cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore, the latest global technology company to boost investment in Southeast Asia.
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The outlay, to be made over the next four years, doubles Amazon Web Services’ investment in Singapore and helps 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 on huge server farms, has been expanding its presence outside the US in recent years, with much of that investment going into Asian markets. Companies like Microsoft Corp. Apple Inc. and Apple Inc. are also growing in the Southeast Asian market of more than 650 million people, in part to diversify outside of China and reduce geopolitical risks amid tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Including the investment in Singapore, AWS this year announced plans to spend about $35 billion outside the US, including in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. The company is also setting up data center clusters in Malaysia and Thailand.
Amazon said last month that AWS was on track to generate more than $100 billion in sales over a year for the first time. Amazon executives say AWS is benefiting from enterprise technology modernization projects as well as demand for AI services.
The announcement was made as part of the AWS ASEAN Summit in Singapore, where AI took center stage with a series of initiatives from the North American company. The city-state was the first data center region AWS established in Asia.
“This investment will create a ripple effect in Singapore, 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 every year. The company will also host workshops for more than 100 companies over two years, in partnership with the Singapore government to help small businesses leverage generative AI.
Singapore has become a hub for U.S. companies in Asia, such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc., and is seen as a gateway to the broader Southeast Asia region, which is expected to grow rapidly.
Microsoft, Amazon’s biggest rival in cloud services, took a tour of local economies last week, with CEO Satya Nadella announcing a series of new investments and initiatives for Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
–With help from Matt Day.
(Updates with executive comment in seventh paragraph)
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