Amazon Web Services (AWS) will invest up to another $1.8 billion in its cloud infrastructure in South Africa by 2029.
This adds to the R15.6-billion the US-headquartered hyperscale cloud provider has already invested 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 more than 5 700 jobs.
The announcement about the investment plans come 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 projected forecast of investment to construct and operate its cloud infrastructure in the country.
In total, 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 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.”
From 2018 to 2022, AWS invested R15.6-billion in the AWS Africa (Cape Town) region. Local spending includes capital expenditure on construction labour, materials and services.
AWS works 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.
Amazon is the world’s largest corporate purchasers of renewable energy and is on path to powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its original target.
In South Africa, AWS launched its first operational solar project in 2021, which contributes renewable energy to the electricity grid. The solar plant is expected to generate up to 28GWh of renewable energy per year, which equals the annual average household electricity consumption of over 8 000 South African homes. The solar plant is majority owned by black women and operated by a fully South African-owned company.
