Amazon is set to inject A$20 billion (roughly $13 billion) into Australia’s tech landscape over the next five years by building state‑of‑the‑art data centres. With cloud computing and AI demand surging, this investment marks the largest by a foreign tech player in the nation, offering new opportunities for skilled jobs and modern IT systems.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sees the move as a major economic boost. He points out that this development will not only drive innovation through advanced AI and supercomputing applications but is also expected to contribute significantly to the economy—up to A$600 billion in annual GDP by 2030, according to forecasts from the national Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, adds that AI is a once‑in‑a‑generation shift. He believes this investment will empower Australians to innovate on a grand scale. To manage the increased power needs of its new cloud infrastructure, Amazon is also launching three solar farms in Victoria and Queensland. Once all 11 planned solar farms are up and running, they’ll collectively produce over 1.4 million megawatt‑hours of electricity each year—enough to power roughly 290,000 homes.
Amazon’s ties with Australia go back to 2012 with the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region hub. Since then, the company has expanded its footprint with facilities in Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney, while also upskilling more than 400,000 Australians to keep pace with emerging AI technologies.
