Amazon pledges $20b investment in Australia’s data centre infrastructure
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The news: Amazon will invest $20 billion to expand, operate and maintain its data infrastructure in Australia from 2025 to 2029 and will work to boost the country’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
The context: Amazon said that the investment will be the largest global technology investment in Australia’s history. The tech giant said it will invest in three new solar farms in Victoria and Queensland, run by European Energy, to support the expanded local cloud infrastructure, with Amazon committing to purchase a combined capacity of more than 170-megawatts (MW) across the three solar farms.
Amazon already invests in eight solar and wind projects in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria which contribute to powering the company’s Australian operations.
Amazon said that once all 11 of the energy projects are operational, it estimates that they will generate over 1.4 million megawatt hours of carbon-free energy every year.
A press release shared by Amazon says that in 2024, Amazon was the third-largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Australia, and remains the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy globally.
What they said: Responding to the investment news, PM Anthony Albanese said: “This is the largest investment our country has seen from a global technology provider, and is an exciting opportunity for Australia to build AI capability using secure, resilient infrastructure. This is exactly the kind of economic investment in our nation that we want to see, and creates opportunities for continued innovation and growth. The investment will generate economic opportunity for Australians, including skilled jobs and infrastructure that can support complex AI and supercomputing applications.”
Matt Garman, CEO of AWS said: "This planned investment deepens our long-term commitment to supporting the growth and development of Australian organisations of all sizes and helping them harness the enormous opportunity that generative AI offers. We’re proud to be expanding our world-class data centre infrastructure, bringing more renewable energy projects online, and supporting the country’s vision to be a global AI leader. AI is a once-in-a-generation transformation, and Amazon is pleased to be empowering all Australians to innovate at scale through this investment.”
The source: Amazon
