(KPL/VNA) - Amazon said on May 7 it will invest 9 billion USD in Singapore over the next four years to expand its cloud computing capabilities in the island city.

The announcement comes after fellow tech titan Microsoft unveiled investment worth billions of dollars in the similar sectors in Southeast Asia last week as firms look to take advantage of growing demand in the region.

Amazon said the figure doubles its investment in the city-state and will help it meet growing demand for cloud services and adopt artificial intelligence.

Priscilla Chong, Country Manager of Singapore for Amazon Web Services (AWS), said that AWS is doubling its cloud infrastructure investment in Singapore from 2024 to 2028 to support customer demand, and help reinforce Singapore’s status as an attractive regional innovation launchpad.

Amazon said its investment will support some 12,000 jobs in Singaporean businesses each year. It is also partnering with the Singapore government to help local businesses accelerate the AI adoption.

The e-commerce titan last week said profit in the first three months of this year tripled as its cloud, ads, and retail businesses thrived. It is also testing an AI chatbot named Rufus that provides shopping tips to US mobile app customers. Meanwhile, generative AI features for sellers help them create product listings.

The company also plans to invest billions of dollars in AWS data centres in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the US in coming years.

Tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft have been investing more in Southeast Asia recently.

Microsoft pledged 2.2 billion USD in AI and cloud computing investment in Malaysia on May 2. That announcement came after tech chief Satya Nadella unveiled a 1.7 billion USD investment in Indonesia, as well as Thailand's first data centre region.

KPL