AWS to pump £8 billion into UK data centres

The jobs will range from construction, facility maintenance, engineering, telecommunications, and other jobs within local economies.

AWS first launched an AWS Region – what it calls a cluster of its data centres – in the UK in 2016, and over the last few years has expanded it to include three Availability Zones, two WaveLength Zones, two Edge Locations, and a Regional Edge Cache.

AWS says since the start of the decade it has invested over £3 billion in the UK in data centre infrastructure, and combined with this announcement the total planned investment in the UK from 2020-2028 will be more than £11 billion.

Hammering the point home with regards to its economic activity generation, we’re told Amazon as a whole has made direct investments of more than £56 billion in the UK between 2010 and 2022, including capital expenditure (such as fulfilment centres, corporate offices, and data centres), and operating expenditure (such as jobs – Amazon says it employs 75,000 people in the UK).

“The next few years could be among the most pivotal for the UK’s digital and economic future, as organisations of all sizes across the country increasingly embrace technologies like cloud computing and AI to help them accelerate innovation, increase productivity, and compete on the global stage,” said Tanuja Randery, Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) at AWS. “We’re proud to announce our plans to invest £8 billion in digital and AI infrastructure over the next five years to help meet the growing needs of our customers and partners, and support the transformation of the UK's digital economy.”

AWS also commissioned consultancy Public First to do some research on how UK businesses are using cloud computing to further make the point of how big a deal the technology is for the UK economy.

84% of AWS customers surveyed thought that their business has saved money as a result of investing in cloud infrastructure, with an average cost saving of 28% compared to using on-premises infrastructure.

82% meanwhile thought that cloud computing has made it possible for them to take their business global, while 85% said it has made it easier to compete with larger companies.

However the release warns that for the UK take full advantage of the ‘growing economic benefits of technologies including cloud computing and AI’, more companies will need to adopt these tools.

The release states: “If the UK can help just half of small and medium businesses (SMBs) who aren’t currently Digital Leaders to adopt technologies such as cloud computing and AI, this could create an estimated £38 billion in additional value for the UK economy over the next five years. These benefits would be spread across all nations and regions of the UK, creating, for example, an additional £2.5 billion in economic value in the West Midlands, and £3.9 billion in economic value in the North West, both over the next five years.”

It also cited stats from Telecom Advisory Services that claim cloud computing in the UK accounted for over £42 billion in 2023, equivalent to 1.6% of GDP which is apparently larger than the UK’s automotive manufacturing sector.

Obviously there’s some vested interest in AWS churning out stats reasoning what the embattled UK economy really needs is some more of what it’s selling. However while you’d certainly want a less biassed source of modelling to really know what the potential might be, improving the economy with technology investment is the sort of thing you’d hope politicians are thinking about. On that note, the announcement came with not one but two government statements.

“This £8 billion Amazon Web Services investment marks the start of the economic revival and shows Britain is a place to do business,” said Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves. “I welcome the announcement as part of the Government’s mission to boost growth, unlock investment and make every part of Britain better off.”

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle added: “Today’s announcement reflects the growing strength of the UK’s digital economy with a key player like Amazon Web Services committing to growing and expanding on our shores. As Technology Secretary, I am committed to supporting digital advancement so that it can improve lives and livelihoods for the better. From increasing compute power to providing access to AI – it is vital that innovators have the infrastructure they need to grow our digital economy and drive breakthroughs.”

Meanwhile, the firm has also announced a deal with Oracle this week that allows its customers to access Oracle Autonomous Database on dedicated infrastructure and Oracle Exadata Database Service within AWS, a move which is supposed to simplify the ‘migration and deployment of enterprise workloads to the cloud.’

Both companies will jointly ‘go-to-market’ with what they are calling Oracle Database@AWS, which will be available in preview later in the year with broader availability in 2025.