Amazon Web Services is set to invest up to R14.8-billion in its cloud infrastructure in South Africa by 2029, according to a statement by the company. The US-headquartered hyperscale cloud provider has already invested R15.6-billion in the country, primarily in Cape Town, where it has built a data centre region. The total investment aims to contribute R68-billion to South Africa’s GDP and support over 5,700 jobs.
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“AWS had long been committed to South Africa and this infrastructure investment adds to the ongoing local story, where Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud was developed by engineers in Cape Town back in 2006,” said Amrote Abdella, GM of AWS sub-Saharan Africa. “The investment already has had a ripple effect on numerous local businesses and has helped establish training and skilling programmes for the local workforce.”
AWS has already invested R15.6-billion in the AWS Africa (Cape Town) region between 2018 and 2022. The investment includes capital expenditure on construction labour, materials and services. The announcement of the investment plans comes as AWS releases a new economic impact study on its investments in South Africa. The report outlines AWS’s investment in the Cape Town region since 2018 and the projected forecast of investment to construct and operate its cloud infrastructure in the country.
According to the report, AWS estimates it will invest R46-billion between 2018 and 2029. The report indicates that AWS’s investment from 2018 to 2029 will contribute an estimated R80-billion to GDP and support an estimated 5,700 full-time jobs at local South African businesses.
AWS has been working with the Durban University of Technology, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town to help prepare the country’s future workforce. Programmes like AWS Academy, AWS Educate and AWS re/Start help with job training across the country. Furthermore, AWS launched its first operational solar project in South Africa in 2021, which is expected to generate up to 28GWh of renewable energy per year. The solar plant is majority-owned by black women and operated by a fully South African-owned company.
Amazon is committed to powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its original target. Amazon is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.
