Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to make a €8.8 billion investment in Germany by 2026
Amazon announced a plan to invest an additional €10 billion ($10.7 billion) into its cloud infrastructure and logistics network in Germany, as part of the company’s efforts to expand its presence across Europe.
In a release, Amazon said that it is also creating 4,000 new jobs this year, at three new fulfillment centers: one in Horn-Bad Meinberg, opening in late summer 2024; one in Erfurt, which opened in May 2024; and one in Großenkneten, which opened in August 2023. With these new jobs, Amazon said it will have more than 40,000 permanent employees in Germany, providing roles of all kinds, at all levels, and in more than 100 German cities and municipalities across its business.
The investment announcement follows its €7.8 billion AWS European Sovereign Cloud investment announced last month. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is a new, independent cloud for Europe and its first AWS Region will launch in the state of Brandenburg by the end of 2025.
As part of Amazon investment in Germany, Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to make a €8.8 billion investment by 2026, to continue to build, maintain and operate its cloud infrastructure for the AWS Europe (Frankfurt) Region, which is based the in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main area since 2014. This investment will help meet growing customer demand for AWS technologies in Germany, including AI, the company said.
According to a new AWS economic impact study, AWS’s investment plan is estimated to contribute €15.4 billion to Germany’s GDP over this period, while supporting an average of 15,200 full-time jobs annually in the local supply chain.
Stefan Hoechbauer, managing director for Germany and Europe at AWS, said: “Germany is at the heart of innovation across Europe. AWS is more committed than ever to helping German customers lead and build new technologies and services using the wide variety of capabilities in the AWS Cloud, including generative AI. To address the growing demand for our services, we’re investing heavily in Germany’s digital infrastructure. This also includes our commitment to support digital skills and talent development programs across Germany and to partner with local communities on joint initiatives with a lasting impact.”
AWS now has 105 availability zones across 33 geographic regions, with plans to create 18 more availability zones and six more AWS regions in Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the European sovereign cloud of AWS.
AWS Regions are composed of availability zones that place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations. Availability zones are located far enough from each other to support customers’ business continuity, but near enough to provide low latency for high availability applications that use multiple availability zones, AWS said.
