Amazon said Tuesday it would invest 9
billion USD in Singapore over the next four years to expand its cloud computing
capabilities in the city.
The announcement comes after fellow tech titan Microsoft unveiled billions
of dollars of investment in the same sectors in Southeast Asia last week as
firms look to take advantage of growing demand in the region.
Amazon said the figure doubles its investment in the city-state and will
help it meet growing demand for cloud services and adopt artificial
intelligence.
“AWS (Amazon Web Services) 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…,” Priscilla Chong, Country Manager of Singapore for AWS, said.
Amazon said its investment will support some 12,000 jobs in Singaporean
businesses each year.
It is also partnering with the Singapore government to help local
businesses accelerate the adoption of AI.
The e-commerce titan last week said profit in the first three months of
2024 tripled as its cloud, ads, and retail businesses thrived.
The company founded by Jeff Bezos is also testing an AI chatbot named Rufus
that provides shopping tips to US mobile app customers.
Meanwhile, generative AI features for sellers help them create product
listings.
The company also plans to invest billions of dollars in AWS datacenters in
Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United States in coming years, according to the
earnings release last week.
Tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft have been investing more in
Southeast Asia recently.
Microsoft pledged 2.2 billion USD in artificial intelligence and cloud
computing investment in Malaysia on Thursday.
That announcement came after tech chief Satya Nadella unveiled a US$1.7 bn
investment in Indonesia, as well as Thailand’s first data centre region.
The tiny but wealthy and infrastructure-rich Singapore has become a
business and technology centre in Southeast Asia, further solidifying its
status after the pandemic.(AFP)