Amazon pours a ten-billion-euro investment into Germany.
In the realm of cloud services, Germany is eyed as the hub of Europe for the US giant Amazon. The corporation is pouring in a whopping 8.8 billion Euros into technology, with an extra 1.2 billion Euros reserved for logistics and robotics. This move is expected to generate numerous job opportunities.
Amazon has plans to inject an additional 10 billion Euros into Germany, primarily for its cloud-internet services. A portion of this will be used for the expansion of logistics, robotics, and the establishment of two new corporate headquarters, as announced by the German Amazon headquarters in Munich. The German Amazon workforce is projected to hit 40,000 permanently employed employees by the end of the year, up from around 36,000 in 2023. The company, born in the summer of 1994, currently employs over 1.5 million people worldwide, the majority of whom are in the US.
Lately, the company unveiled the development of a new European Cloud named "AWS European Sovereign Cloud" with investments totaling 7.8 billion Euros. The first region is scheduled to be stationed in Brandenburg. Correspondingly, Amazon has hinted that the total investments planned for Germany sum up to 17.8 billion Euros.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz viewed this as a powerful message for Germany. The investment plans from Amazon suggest that Germany remains an alluring investment destination and garners the faith of investors. "As a federal government, we are working meticulously on this - the competitiveness of the location and the investment conditions," Scholz declared.
From the announced 10 additional billion dollars, Amazon intends to spend 8.8 billion dollars in the Rhein-Main-Region by 2026 for the expansion of its cloud subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS' business model revolves around managing server operations and IT services for business clients in the large AWS data centers. According to industry sources, the 8.8 billion dollars cover construction costs, data center operations, and imports of machinery and software.
Cloud Services as a Booming Sector
As per figures from the US market research institute Synergy Research Group, AWS held a global market share of 31% in the first quarter of this year and reigned supreme as the undisputed world leader in cloud services. However, AWS faced some setbacks in competition with Microsoft's Azure in second place.
AWS anticipates the demand for cloud services in Germany to keep growing. "Germany is the heart of all our European innovations," said Stefan Höchbauer, AWS' managing director for Germany and Central Europe, according to a statement.
Amazon is also expanding in the online retail sector: In May, a new logistics center was opened in Erfurt, and another is expected to open in Horn-Bad Meinberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, in late summer. Previously, a new logistics center had gone into operation in Lower Saxony's Großenkneten in August 2023. In addition, two new corporate headquarters are being built in Munich and Berlin. So far, Amazon employees in both cities have been working on several smaller sites. Amazon has invested over 77 billion Euros in Germany since 2010, according to the company.
Read also:
Amazon will allocate a significant portion of its additional 10 billion Euro investment in Germany towards expanding its cloud services, specifically its subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS), in the Rhein-Main-Region by 2026. Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, saw this investment as a strong affirmation of Germany's attractiveness as an investment destination.
Despite facing competition with Microsoft's Azure, AWS, a leading player in cloud services, anticipates continued growth in demand for cloud services in Germany, positioning it as the hub of Europen cloud services for Amazon.
