AWS CEO On New $13B Cloud, AI And Sustainability Investment In Australia

‘This is the largest publicly announced global tech investment in the country’s history and reflects the incredible innovation we’re seeing from Australian organizations and their growing demand for advanced cloud and AI capabilities,’ says AWS CEO Matt Garman.

Amazon Web Services is continuing to invest billions in expanding its cloud infrastructure globally to drive AI and cloud sales by unveiling Monday a new $13 billion data center investment in Australia.

“This is the largest publicly announced global tech investment in the country’s history and reflects the incredible innovation we’re seeing from Australian organizations and their growing demand for advanced cloud and AI capabilities,” said AWS CEO Matt Garman Monday on LinkedIn.

In addition to new data centers in the region, AWS unveiled plans to build three new solar farms in Australia to support the infrastructure expansion.

“With this commitment, we’re also doubling down on sustainability with three new renewable energy projects to power our operations,” said Garman. “From startups to enterprises to government agencies, we’re excited to support Australia's digital future.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured above right) was at AWS’ headquarters in Seattle on Sunday to meet with Garman (pictured above left) and his leadership team.

“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,” said Prime Minister Albanese in a statement Monday.

AWS’ $13B Investment And Sustainability Plan

Over the next four years, AWS will invest $13 billion in developing additional data centers and expanding its existing facilities in Sydney and Melbourne.

Three new solar farms will be built in Victoria and Queensland that will power and support the infrastructure expansion. European Energy will design and operate the solar farm projects with Amazon committing to purchase a combined capacity of more than 170 megawatts across the three solar farms.

The ultimate goal is to boost cloud computing and AI adoption and capabilities throughout the country.

“It puts the latest cloud and AI capabilities into the hands of hundreds of thousands of AWS customers and partners to drive innovation at scale, while ensuring local data residency and regulatory requirements are met,” said Amazon in a statement.

AWS CEO On ‘Enormous’ GenAI Opportunity

AWS’ initial investment in Australia started in 2012 with the opening of the AWS Asia Pacific Region in Sydney.

In 2023, AWS launched the AWS Asia Pacific Region in Melbourne and the country’s first AWS Local Zones in Perth. Last year, the Australian government unveiled an AWS partnership to provide a "Top Secret" AWS Cloud to deliver cloud innovation in national security and defense and enhance the nation's defense and intelligence capabilities.

AWS’ CEO said the company’s new investment will help grow and develop Australian businesses of all sizes and help them “harness the enormous opportunity that generative AI offers.”

“We’re proud to be expanding our world-class data center infrastructure, bringing more renewable energy projects online and supporting the country’s vision to be a global AI leader,” said Garman. “AI is a once-in-a-generation transformation, and Amazon is pleased to be empowering all Australians to innovate at scale through this investment.”