Growing demand

Amazon pumps billions into German cloud services

Amazon is not only the top dog in online shopping, but also the global market leader in cloud services.

(Bild: APA/dpa)

The US company Amazon plans to invest a further ten billion euros in Germany, the majority of which in its cloud internet services. The smaller part is to flow into the expansion of logistics, robotics and two new company headquarters.

This was announced by Amazon's German headquarters in Munich. The workforce is set to grow to 40,000 permanent employees by the end of the year, up from around 36,000 in 2023.

Amazon employs 1.5 million people worldwide
Founded in the summer of 1994, the company now employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide, the majority of whom are still based in the USA. However, Germany is an important foreign market for Amazon. In May, the company recently announced the establishment of a new cloud for Europe called "AWS European Sovereign Cloud" with expenditure of 7.8 billion euros, the first region of which is to be located in Brandenburg. Accordingly, the Group put the total amount of investment currently planned in Germany at 17.8 billion euros.

Of the further ten billion now announced, the US company plans to spend 8.8 billion in the Rhine-Main region by 2026 to expand the business of its cloud subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS). Its business model is based on taking over server operation and IT services for corporate customers in the large AWS data centers. According to company sources, the 8.8 billion figure includes expenditure on construction work and data center operations as well as imports of machines and software.

Amazon also world market leader in cloud offerings
According to figures from the US market research institute Synergy Research Group, AWS was still the undisputed global market leader in cloud services with a global market share of 31% in the first quarter of this year, but lost ground slightly in competition with Microsoft's rival cloud Azure in second place.

AWS assumes that demand for cloud services will continue to grow in Germany too. "Germany is the heart of our pan-European innovations," said Stefan Höchbauer, AWS CEO for Germany and Central Europe, according to the press release.

Amazon is also continuing to expand in online retail: a new logistics center was opened in Erfurt in May, followed by another in Horn-Bad Meinberg in North Rhine-Westphalia in late summer. Previously, a new logistics center in Großenkneten, Lower Saxony, went into operation in August 2023. Two new company headquarters are also being built in Munich and Berlin. Until now, Amazon employees in both cities have been spread across several smaller locations.

According to the company, Amazon has invested a total of more than 77 billion euros in Germany since 2010.