Amazon is investing NZ$7.5 billion ($4.4 billion) to expand its data centres and cloud computing infrastructure in New Zealand, turning the South Pacific nation as a regional hub for Amazon Web Services.
Server in an Amazon Web Services data centre.
Amazon
The Asia Pacific hub gives New Zealand-based AWS customers such as tech unicorn Xero and Kiwibank the option to run AI workloads, store data and deliver digital services faster, AWS said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The new AWS Region in New Zealand will help serve the growing demand for cloud services across the country and empower organizations of all sizes to accelerate their digital transformation,” Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of infrastructure services at AWS said in the statement.
Amazon said its data centre project will help create over 1,000 jobs, and add about NZ$10.8 billion to New Zealand’s economy. It did not reveal the project’s location or timeline but said it will run on renewable energy from New Zealand’s largest wind farm, about 150 kilometres north of Wellington.
The U.S. e-commerce giant has been stepping up investments across the Asia Pacific, with plans to invest over $50 billion to scale up its digital infrastructure in Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
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