Amazon Web Services says it will spend $20 billion in Australia over the next five years on business operations, including on a significant expansion of its data centre infrastructure.
The commitment is a significant expansion of the $13.2 billion that the company had already announced for the period 2023 to 2027, with the $7 billion+ increase an indication of just how fast the opportunity is expanding.
AWS chief executive Matt Garman announced the spending increase on Saturday in Seattle with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was making a flying visit to the company’s US headquarters.
Mr Albanese, who was on a Seattle stop-over on his way to the G7 conference in Canada, said the new investment in data centre infrastructure was an important contribution to the government’s productivity agenda.
The announcement contained few details beyond the headline number.
It is not clear from the announcement how much of the $20 billion spending is an investment – in the accepted meaning of the word – in building capacity, and how much spending on business-as-usual operations, such as rents, wages and energy consumption.
It said its “new total” of $20 billion would be spent to “expand, operate, and maintain its data centre infrastructure Australia”, including funding for its significant electricity requirements for the period.
The $20 billion AWS spend will include support for three new solar farms – two in Victoria and one in Queensland, delivered and operated by renewables power giant European Energy, with Amazon committing to purchase a combined capacity of 170MW.
Mr Albanese said the expansion of the AWS AI and data centre footprint in Australia was an important endorse for the nation as an attractive destination for digital infrastructure that could support the region.
“The US is a trusted technology partner in the Indo-Pacific and Australia, and Australia is an attractive and a stable destination for international business and investment,” Mr Albanese said.
“I see Australia’s future as not just attracting businesses to invest in our domestic economy, but also as being a base for investment in our region – the fastest growing region of the world in human history; the fastest growing middle class that the world has ever seen,” he said.
He said the AWS expansion would boost Australia’s economic growth, as well as economic resilience and productivity.
“It will accelerate the development of Australia’s growing data center infrastructure and support technology adoption by Australian businesses,” the Prime Minister said.
The government was increasingly focused on the upside of the giant strides in artificial intelligence that Australia needs to harness, Mr Albanese said.
“There are always risks with new technology. We need to make sure that it works in the interests of our populations, in the interest of economic growth and productivity. And I’m convinced that we can do that.”
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