New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has revealed an investment by tech giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) valued at $7.5 billion.
In a conversation with Newstalk ZB, Luxon said the scale of the investment by Amazon Web Services would definitely have a positive effect on New Zealand’s GDP, providing nearly an 11 billion dollar boost.
The investment is also expected to generate around 1,000 jobs.
Luxon said Amazon is “one of the biggest companies in the world, probably worth over a trillion dollars, which would be, you know, three and a half times the size of New Zealand.”
“For us to be able to have a big global company like AWS put a vote of confidence in New Zealand in that way, that’s probably the largest ever, certainly publicly announced, technology I would imagine, investment in New Zealand by a national tech firm,” he said.
Amazon Web Services operates under the technology company Amazon. It provides over 200 different services to businesses through its cloud computing platform.
According to its website, AWS “has been providing industry-leading cloud capabilities and expertise that have helped customers transform industries, communities, and lives for the better.”
In New Zealand, AWS serves a diverse range of customers, including Air New Zealand, BNZ, the Ministry of Health, TVNZ, the University of Auckland, Xero, Vodafone, Sharesies, Deloitte, and Orion Health.
In 2021, Amazon’s cloud computing division moved into an office located on two floors of the PWC building at Commercial Bay in downtown Auckland. While the company is focused on expanding its business in New Zealand, it has not yet committed at the time to constructing one of its advanced data centres in the country.