Days after rival Microsoft unveiled major investments in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that to expand its cloud infrastructure and services in Singapore, it will invest an extra 12 billion Singapore dollars, or around $8.87 billion, over the next five years.
The revelation was made on Tuesday during the Amazon Web Services ASEAN Summit.
The tech giant, located in Seattle, had previously revealed plans to invest billions of dollars in cloud services in Malaysia and Thailand.
According to the announcement, AWS also announced a partnership with businesses, public sector organisations, and the Singaporean government to assist speed up the country’s adoption of generative AI and artificial intelligence.
According to Amazon, the investment will provide $23.7 billion to Singapore’s GDP annually and sustain more than 12,000 jobs at Singaporean companies.
The latest action taken by American IT giants to increase their presence in Southeast Asia is Amazon’s declaration.
“AWS is doubling down on its cloud infrastructure investments in Singapore from 2024 to 2028 to support customer demand, and help reinforce Singapore’s status as an attractive regional innovation launchpad,” AWS Country Manager Priscilla Chong said.
Over 400,000 Singaporeans have received cloud-related training from the company since 2017, according to Chong, who also stated that the company will “continue to invest in upskilling and improve productivity” nationwide.
Reacting to the investment at the event Tan Kiat How, senior minister of state at Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information, said:
“Cloud service providers like AWS play an important role in improving the digital economy ecosystem. Besides being a foundational digital infrastructure for organizations, cloud service providers enable enterprises to easily access digital resources like compute and storage, as well as advanced capabilities like AI and generative AI.”
We earlier reported that digital payments globally, Visa Inc., has announced that it would be working with the AWS Partner Network (APN) to make it easier for customers, including enterprises, financial institutions, and cloud-native fintech, to use its payment services.