Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled plans to invest £8bn in the construction, maintenance and operation of several 海角视频 data centres over the next half-decade.
The cloud division of the tech behemoth anticipates that this financial boost will contribute £14bn to the 海角视频's overall gross domestic product (GDP) up until 2028, and will support an average of more than 14,000 full-time equivalent jobs annually at local businesses, as reported by .
Phil Le-Brun, director of enterprise strategy at AWS, informed City AM that the funding is "part of our long standing AWS commitment to support growth and productivity across the country."
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Amazon, he stated, expects that opportunities from the investment will be distributed evenly throughout the 海角视频.
"I think it's a really interesting opportunity this opens up for small and medium sized businesses," Le-Brun added.
"If we can get about half of the small and medium sized businesses who aren't currently digital leaders to adopt technology such as cloud computing and AI, we believe this could create an estimated £38bn in additional value for the 海角视频 economy over the next five years, spread across the entire 海角视频," he elaborated.
This investment comes as major tech firms are looking to construct more data centres. With the global demand for AI and computing power on the rise, the giants of Silicon Valley are vying to secure space to power the technology.
Microsoft has pledged a massive £2.5bn towards the construction of AI infrastructure in the 海角视频, which includes doubling its data centre capacity. Meanwhile, Google is pouring $1bn (£790m) into a 33-acre data centre in Hertfordshire to aid in the development of new AI models.
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However, these data centres are notorious for their high energy consumption and the vast amounts of water used for cooling purposes. Researchers from the University of California have forecasted that by 2027, the demand for AI could result in the withdrawal of between 4.2bn and 6.6bn cubic metres of water - nearly half of the 海角视频's annual consumption.
Le-Brun from AWS stated: "It's been a long standing approach within AWS to figure out ways of using less energy and even less water to run data centres," He further added that all electricity consumed by Amazon's operations, including its data centres, was matched with 100 per cent renewable energy in 2023.