Amazon Plans to invest another R14.8 Billion in SA

Amazon Web Service announced that they are planning to invest another R14.8 Billion in its cloud infrastructure in South Africa by 2029.

The company has already invested R15.6 Billion in the country, primarily in Cape Town where it has built a data centre region, this now puts the investment to R30.4 Billion

AWS aims to contribute R68 Billion to South Africa’s GDP and create more than 5 700 jobs by 2029.

AWS released a new economic impact study on its South African investment. The report outlines the AWS investment in Cape Town region since 2018 to construct and operate its cloud infrastructure in South Africa.

AWS estimates to invest R46 Billion between 2018 and 2029. The report shows that AWS’s investment from 2018 to 2029 will contribute and estimate of R80 Billion to GDP.

“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.”

The company stated that it also works with South Africa’s Universities.

“Programs like AWS Academy, AWS Educate, and AWS re/Start help with job training across the country. Moreover, AWS is committed to supporting the digital literacy goals set out in South Africa’s ‘National Digital and Future Skills Strategy’ through innovative workforce development programs,” it said.

In 2021 the company launched its first solar project, which contributes renewable energy to electricity grid. The solar plant is expected to generate 28GWh of renewable energy per year. The plant is mostly owned by black women and fully operated by South African owned company.