Amazon's computing unit AWS is in talks with Italy to invest billions of euros to expand its data center operations in the country, four people familiar with the matter said, as part of the tech giant's efforts to boost its cloud services in Europe.
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london – Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud arm of the US e-commerce giant, announced that it plans to invest 8 billion pounds ($10.45 billion) in the next five years to build and operate data centers in the UK to strengthen its cloud computing business in the UK.
The investment, announced earlier on Wednesday London time, comes as cloud computing vendors tout the benefits of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and companies look to integrate the technology into their businesses.
Tanuja Randery, Managing Director of AWS Europe, Middle East and Africa, said in an interview with CNBC: “We have seen British companies really adopt cloud computing and artificial intelligence technology, and we know that the UK has a very ambitious digital plan.” Interview .
“So that's going to help our customers really be able to take advantage of the cloud because you need data centers to be able to really provide cloud computing to our customers.”
Generative AI is “probably the most transformative technology we've seen since the cloud and the web,” Landry said, and companies are now experimenting with the emerging technology.
“We're also seeing businesses looking at this in terms of revenue growth and employee productivity, which, as you know, is really important and also being able to compete on a global scale.”
AWS, along with other cloud providers, has been making significant investments in infrastructure, such as data centers and NVIDIA chip to train and run artificial intelligence models. These cloud vendors then sell artificial intelligence services to enterprises.
AWS Competitors Microsoft and Google The UK business and its investments continue the company's focus on expansion in Europe. AWS said it plans to invest 8.8 billion euros in existing cloud infrastructure in Germany this year.
But the investment also comes at a time when UK regulators are closely watching competition in the cloud market with AWS and Microsoft. The Competition and Markets Authority is currently studying the UK cloud market.
Landry said AWS was working “very constructively” with the CMA but the authority needed to balance regulation with innovation.
“We work closely with governments and regulators around the world, and we believe regulation is important, but regulation should continue to benefit innovation,” Landry told CNBC.