Amazon to invest 12b in S’pore Al and cloud projects

It will also helm workshops with at least 100 enterprises to help drive AI adoption

- Osmond Chia

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is set to make one of the largest investments yet in digital infrastructure in Singapore, with $12 billion over the next four years going into cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) projects, as well as expanding its operations here.

It will also helm a series of workshops with at least 100 enterprises here to help drive AI adoption.

The company announced at the AWS Summit held at Marina Bay Sands on May 7 that the investment brings the company's total sum poured into Singapore to $23.5 billion.

This is more than double the amount it invested here from 2010, when Amazon's cloud computing division set up its regional headquarters here for its cluster of data centres, to 2023.

The money will be channelled into expanding AWS' operations in the Asia-Pacific region, said AWS country manager Priscilla Chong in an exclusive interview with The Straits Times on May 3.

It includes salaries for Amazon staff and costs of importing more specialised equipment and software, construction and data centre operations here, she said.

She did not provide an estimated expense in each area or say whether AWS will hire more people here.

The investment also primes AWS for growing demand for generative AI tools, which require heavy computational power, said Ms Chong.