Amazon Web Services (AWS) is to offer cutting-edge GPU accelerator chips as part of an $8.2 billion (£6.5bn) commitment to build out cloud infrastructure in the northwest Indian state of Maharashtra, home of India’s financial capital of Mumbai, the country’s information technology ministry said.
“They are very optimistic about growth in India,” said information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw after meeting with an AWS team this week. “They are deploying some of the best compute facilities and cloud management services in India.”
He said the investment, which is to be deployed by 2029-2030, was expected to mean significant growth in employment.
India investment
AWS initially exchanged a memorandum of understanding with the government of Maharashtra on the investment at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, but disclosed more details at this week’s meeting, including the use of cutting-edge GPUs, according to Vaishnaw.
Amazon said its investment was expected to contribute $15.3bn to India’s gross domestic product and to support more than 81,300 full-time jobs in the local data centre supply chain by 2030.
“This collaboration will not only bolster our state’s technological infrastructure, but also create new opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and job creation,” said Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in January.
The investment is part of a broader AWS plan to spend $12.7bn across India by 2030, announced in May 2023, to meet growing demand for cloud and AI services.
The company launched its first cloud region in India, the AWS Asia-Pacific (Mumbai) Region, in 2016, followed by the AWS Asia-Pacific (Hyderabad) Region in 2023.
Cloud competition
AWS is India’s largest cloud provider, followed by Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud, according to figures from cloud technology firm Hava.
Alibaba, China’s biggest cloud provider, also made significant cloud infrastructure investment in India, but last July suspended its services in India and Australia to prioritise Southeast Asia and Mexico.
Last year Amazon also said it would invest $2bn in India to boost its e-commerce business, in which it competes with Walmart-owned Flipkart.