US technology giant Amazon will invest 8 billion pounds ($10.5 billion) in Britain over the next five years, creating thousands of jobs through its web services arm, the company and the UK government announced on Wednesday.
The announcement is a welcome boon for Britain’s recently elected Labour government, which has placed rapid economic growth at the heart of its pledge to “rebuild” the country.
Amazon said its investment to build, operate and maintain data centres in the UK could contribute £14 billion to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and “support” more than 14,000 jobs annually across its supply chain.
This is the latest announcement of a major investment in a European country by the company’s AWS cloud computing division, and comes amid ongoing debate about “cloud” computing services in the European Union.
“This £8 billion investment marks the start of an economic recovery and shows the UK remains a great place to do business,” British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves said in a statement.
“I am determined to go even further so we can fulfil our mandate to create jobs, boost investment and improve every part of the UK.”
“The hard work of fixing the foundations of our economy has just begun.”
Amazon said the funds will be spent on expanding the operations of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) subsidiary.
The e-commerce giant is looking to take advantage of growing demand for cloud computing capacity such as server space.
– ‘Decisive’ –
UK government agencies and companies such as airline easyJet, bank NatWest and Sainsbury’s supermarkets are already using AWS data centres, as are many of the world’s top companies.
“The next few years could be the most crucial for the UK’s digital and economic future,” said Tanuja Randree, vice president and managing director (Europe, Middle East and Africa) at AWS.
He said the expansion of AWS will “help organisations of all sizes across the country adopt technologies such as cloud computing and AI, helping them accelerate innovation, enhance productivity, and compete on a global stage.”
In recent months, the subsidiary has announced it is investing billions of euros in Germany, Spain and France.
The decision comes amid ongoing discussions in the European Union about a “European sovereign cloud,” which would allow the storage and processing of data online without the aid of US technology giants.
Amazon employs 75,000 people across more than 100 locations in the UK. It said in its press release that it has invested £56 billion in the country between 2010 and 2022.
The company announced last month that its quarterly profit had doubled, thanks to cloud and AI.
AWS revenue grew 19 percent to $26.3 billion in the second quarter.
Amazon is the world’s number one cloud provider, but when it comes to generative AI it lags behind the other two giants in this field, Microsoft and Google.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
