Amazon.com is ramping up its presence in Southeast Asia, announcing a $12 billion ($8.88 billion) investment over four years to expand its cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore, Reuters reported on Tuesday. This latest move, unveiled at the AWS ASEAN Summit, adds to the S$11.5 billion Amazon Web Services (AWS) has already committed to the Asia Pacific region by 2023. The total planned expenditure is expected to exceed S$23 billion by 2028. The investment reflects the growing importance of Southeast Asia for tech giants. With a young and tech-savvy population of 670 million, the region is attracting significant interest. Recent high-profile visits include Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Apple CEO Tim Cook, both seeking a foothold in the market. Apple, for instance, plans to invest over $250 million into its Singapore operations. Amazon's announcement comes on the heels of similar moves by its competitors. Microsoft recently pledged cloud service investments of $2.2 billion in Malaysia and $1.7 billion in Indonesia. This regional cloud war is heating up, with each company vying for dominance. AWS is partnering with the Singaporean government and businesses to promote the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI in the country, in addition to investing in infrastructure. This collaborative approach positions Singapore as a launchpad for innovative AI solutions, AWS country manager Priscilla Chong said.
