Amazon.com Inc’s computing unit AWS is in talks to invest billions of euros in expanding its data center operations in Italy as part of a push to bolster its cloud services in Europe, according to four people familiar with the matter.
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London — Amazon AWS, the cloud division of the U.S. e-commerce giant, has announced plans to invest 8 billion pounds ($10.45 billion) over the next five years to build and operate data centers in the UK as it bolsters its cloud computing efforts in the country.
The investment, announced early Wednesday London time, comes as cloud companies tout the benefits of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and companies look to integrate the technology into their businesses.
“We’re seeing real adoption of cloud computing and AI technologies by UK businesses and we know that the UK has very ambitious digital plans,” Tanuja Randery, managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at AWS, said in an interview with CNBC.
“So this will help our customers actually take advantage of cloud computing, because to actually deliver cloud computing to customers, you need data centers.”
Launderley said generative AI is “probably the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the cloud and the internet,” and that companies are currently testing this nascent technology.
“And we’re seeing companies looking at this not just from a revenue growth and employee productivity perspective — which you know, is really important — but also from the perspective of whether they can compete globally.”
Like other cloud providers, AWS operates data centers and NVIDIA Cloud players develop chips to train and run AI models. These cloud players then sell AI services to enterprises.
AWS is competing Microsoft and Google In the UK, the company’s investment continues its focus on European expansion: AWS announced earlier this year that it plans to invest €8.8 billion in its existing cloud infrastructure in Germany.
But the investment also comes at a time when UK regulators are scrutinizing AWS and Microsoft and scrutinizing competition in the cloud market. The Competition and Markets Authority is currently investigating the UK cloud market.
Launderley said AWS was “working very constructively” with the CMA, but that the authority needed to balance regulation with innovation.
“We’ve worked closely with governments and regulators around the world and we believe that regulation is important, but that regulation must continue to be innovation-friendly,” Launderie told CNBC.
