Amazon bets $35 bn more on India biz

Overall India investments to top $75 bn; Cloud, AI, exports, jobs in focus

- Suneera Tandon

Amazon's mega-investment is the biggest in a series of recent blockbuster plans from multinationals.

(MINT)

Amazon Inc. will plough an additional $35 billion into India over the next five years to expand its bouquet of retail, cloud and streaming businesses, boosting its cumulative investment in Asia’s fastest-growing economy to $75 billion by the end of the decade.

The world’s largest online retailer has already poured nearly $40 billion into India, building out its logistics, payments, cloud and retail infrastructure. In a statement, Amazon cited a report from consultancy Keystone Strategy, stating that the latest investment establishes it as India’s largest foreign investor and one of its top job creators.

Amazon has created millions of jobs in India as it “invested at scale” to grow the physical and digital infrastructure for small businesses, senior vice-president for emerging markets Amit Agarwal said. The company promised to democratize access to Al for millions of Indians, create | million job opportunities, and quadruple e-commerce-enabled exports to $80 billion by 2030. At Smbhav, an Amazon event for micro, small and medium enterprises, Agarwal emphasized that India remains one of Amazon’s largest long-term opportunities.