Amazon today announced plans to invest a new total of AU$20 billion from 2025 to 2029 to expand, operate, and maintain its data center infrastructure in Australia. The country’s largest publicly-announced global technology investment will support the strong growth in customer demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), accelerating AI adoption and capability, and the continued modernization of Australian organizations of all sizes.

The planned investment supports the Australian government’s vision to improve productivity and grow the economy through AI innovation. It puts the latest cloud and AI capabilities into the hands of hundreds of thousands of Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers and partners to drive innovation at scale, while ensuring local data residency and regulatory requirements are met. According to the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources, AI and automation are expected to contribute up to AU$600 billion annually to Australia’s GDP by 2030.

AWS’s commitment to Australia began in 2012 with the opening of the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region. In 2023, AWS launched the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region and the country’s first AWS Local Zones in Perth. In April 2024, AWS launched Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s fully managed generative AI service, in the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region, and in July 2024, the Australian Government announced a partnership with AWS to provide a “Top Secret” AWS Cloud to deliver cloud innovation in national security and defense, and enhance the nation’s defense and intelligence capabilities.

To support the expanded local cloud infrastructure, Amazon is investing in three new solar farms in Victoria and Queensland. European Energy will deliver and operate the new projects, with Amazon committing to purchase a combined capacity of more than 170-megawatts (MW) across the three solar farms. Amazon already invests in eight solar and wind projects across New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, which are helping power Amazon’s Australian operations, including Amazon data centers and fulfilment centers. Once all 11 renewable energy projects are operational, they are estimated to generate more than 1.4 million megawatt hours of carbon-free energy annually, or enough to power about 290,000 Australian homes each year.

From 2020 to 2022, Amazon invested an estimated AU$467 million in renewable energy projects in Australia. In 2024, Amazon was the third-largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Australia, and remains the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy globally. According to a study by Accenture, Australian organizations migrating compute-heavy AI workloads to AWS can reduce carbon emissions by up to 94% compared with on-premises data centers, due to efficiencies in AWS’s infrastructure hardware, power, and cooling, and carbon-free energy procurement.

The Honourable Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia said, “I am pleased to join Matt Garman to announce AWS’s investment of AU$20 billion over five years to further develop and expand its data centers in Sydney and Melbourne. This is the largest investment our country has seen from a global technology provider, and is an exciting opportunity for Australia to build AI capability using secure, resilient infrastructure. This is exactly the kind of economic investment in our nation that we want to see, and creates opportunities for continued innovation and growth. The investment will generate economic opportunity for Australians, including skilled jobs and infrastructure that can support complex AI and supercomputing applications.”

Matt Garman, CEO of AWS said, “This planned investment deepens our long-term commitment to supporting the growth and development of Australian organizations of all sizes and helping them harness the enormous opportunity that generative AI offers. We’re proud to be expanding our world-class data center infrastructure, bringing more renewable energy projects online, and supporting the country’s vision to be a global AI leader. AI is a once-in-a-generation transformation, and Amazon is pleased to be empowering all Australians to innovate at scale through this investment.”

The planned investment follows the launch of AWS AI Spring Australia, a comprehensive set of programs designed to accelerate AI adoption and capability across the nation. This flagship initiative will provide targeted support across different sectors and industries. Initial programs include the AWS Generative AI Accelerator, a program designed to grow early-stage generative AI startups, and AWS AI Launchpad, a program to help Australian enterprises begin and accelerate their generative AI journey. Through AI Spring Australia, AWS will leverage its world-class infrastructure, deep AI expertise, and security with guardrails to help boost local productivity while unlocking new product and service innovation.

Since 2017, AWS has trained more than 400,000 people across Australia, empowering individuals to accelerate their careers and contribute to the nation’s digital transformation and economy. Amazon has a deep commitment to upskilling people in Australia through a combination of local and global skills programs. These include AWS’s Work-Based Learning Program, a 12-month training program for data center operations, and Amazon’s AI Ready initiative, launched with a goal to provide free AI skills training to two million people globally by 2025. AWS will continue to collaborate with educational institutions, industry partners, and the government to further develop comprehensive training programs that prepare Australians for the jobs of the future.

AWS is used by hundreds of thousands of organizations in Australia. This encompasses enterprise, public sector, and startup customers, as well as AWS partners, many leveraging AWS’s AI and generative AI services to transform their operations and drive growth. They include: 6pillars.ai, ANZ Bank, Atlassian, Australian Epilepsy Project, Australian Stroke Alliance, Canva, Commonwealth Bank, CyberCX, DNX Solutions, IxCeed, Mantalus, Mantel Group, National Australia Bank, nib Group, Relevance AI, Sekuro, Splash Music, Swimming Australia, Telstra, Optus, V2 Digital, and Westpac.

Together with the government, private sector, and academia, AWS is committed to unlocking Australia’s AI capability and nurturing future generations of technology and AI innovators.