Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to invest £8 billion over the next five years to build, operate and maintain data centres in the UK.
The project is expected to contribute £14 billion to UK GDP by 2028 and create more than 14,000 jobs across the data centre supply chain, including in construction, engineering and telecoms.
AWS has spent £3 billion on development in the UK since 2020 to meet growing customer demand. This has supported an average of 6,000 full-time jobs at local business level. The total impact of cloud computing services in the UK will be over £42 billion by 2023 – more than 1.6% of GDP.
Digital economy
Research shows that cloud computing services save small businesses money and help them compete with larger companies because they have access to the same technologies.
Tanuja Randery, Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at AWS, said: “The next few years could be 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.”
The cloud infrastructure market is dominated by three major companies: AWS, Microsoft and Google. By 2023, a research into the delivery of public cloud infrastructure services in the UK indicated that AWS may have engaged in anti-competitive behavior that could harm UK customers and businesses.
It is not yet clear what the impact of this new investment will be on the UK market, but a final decision is expected in April 2025.