How Amazon Hopes to Advance AI Infrastructure in Australia
Australia hopes to advance its AI development via new investment from Amazon to expand data centre infrastructure by 2029.
The technology giant aims to strengthen the country’s cloud and AI capabilities, with AU$20 billion (US$13bn) pledged to help build national AI capability and position Australia as a global AI and technology leader.
This is the largest global technology investment announced in Australia’s history. As part of these plans, Amazon will invest in three solar farms across Victoria and Queensland to support the expanded infrastructure.
European Energy will deliver and operate the projects, with Amazon purchasing more than 170 megawatts (MW) of combined capacity from the installations.
“This planned investment deepens our long-term commitment to supporting the growth and development of Australian organisations of all sizes and helping them harness the enormous opportunity that generative AI (Gen AI) offers,” says Matt Garman, CEO of AWS.
“We're proud to be expanding our world-class data centre infrastructure, bringing more renewable energy projects online, and supporting the country's vision to be a global AI leader.”
Renewable power expected to support data centre operations
The investment builds on AWS’s existing presence in Australia, which began in 2012 with the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region. AWS added the Melbourne region in 2023 and also introduced the country’s first AWS Local Zones in Perth.
Amazon Bedrock, the company’s managed Gen AI service, launched in the Sydney region in April 2024.
Additionally, the Australian government announced a partnership with AWS in July 2024 to provide a classified cloud service for national security and defence applications. According to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, AI and automation could contribute AU$600 billion (US$390.48bn) annually to Australia's GDP by 2030.
- AU$20 billion investment from Amazon to expand data centre infrastructure by 2029
- Strengthening Australia’s cloud and AI capabilities
- Three new solar farms in Victoria and Queensland will support infrastructure expansion
- AWS has trained 400,000+ people in Australia since 2017 to develop digital skills, and will continue to support generative AI programs like AWS AI Spring Australia and AWS Generative AI Accelerator
As part of its investment, Amazon is investing in three solar farms across Victoria and Queensland to support expanded infrastructure. The company already operates eight existing solar and wind projects across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.
When all 11 renewable energy projects become operational, they are expected to generate more than 1.4 million megawatt hours of carbon-free energy annually, according to Amazon, which is sufficient to power approximately 290,000 Australian homes each year.
In 2024, Amazon was ranked as the third-largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Australia and maintains its position as the largest worldwide.
According to a study by Accenture, Australian organisations that migrate compute-intensive AI workloads to AWS can reduce carbon emissions by up to 94%, compared with on-premises data centres. The reduction stems from efficiencies in AWS infrastructure hardware, power systems, cooling and carbon-free energy procurement.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese describes the investment as significant for Australia's technology sector.
“This is the largest investment our country has seen from a global technology provider, and is an exciting opportunity for Australia to build AI capability using secure, resilient infrastructure,” he says.
“This is exactly the kind of economic investment in our nation that we want to see, and creates opportunities for continued innovation and growth.”
Investing in digital skills development across Australia
The investment also follows the launch of AWS AI Spring Australia, which was formed to accelerate AI adoption across different sectors and industries.
The programme includes the AWS Generative AI Accelerator for early-stage Gen AI startups and AWS AI Launchpad for enterprises beginning their Gen AI implementation.
AWS has trained more than 400,000 people across Australia since 2017 through various skills programmes. The company operates a Work-Based Learning Program for data centre operations, which provides 12 months of training.
Likewise, Amazon’s AI Ready initiative aims to deliver free AI skills training to two million people globally by 2025.
The company works consistently with educational institutions, industry partners and government agencies to develop training programmes for technology roles. AWS also collaborates with hundreds of organisations across Australia already, including enterprise, public sector and startup customers.
In order to support continued AI innovation, investment into infrastructure is a must – particularly when it comes to data centres.
AWS has already committed to several initiatives globally in this area, including the introduction of a new infrastructure region in Chile earlier in the year.
Matt Garman adds: “AI is a once-in-a-generation transformation and Amazon is pleased to be empowering all Australians to innovate at scale through this investment.”
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