Jerry Petersen
Amazon is investing over $100 billion over the next ten years on data centers with the ultimate aim of taking advantage of growing demand for artificial intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
AI requires the computational power offered by the cloud and so is expected to drive demand for cloud services. Amazon projects AI to deliver tens of billions of dollars in revenue through the next few years.
The technology company is already in the midst of expanding its cloud infrastructure, with efforts taking place at various locations, including Virginia and Ohio.
Amazon also says its infrastructure expenditures for Amazon Web Services, which handles the technology company’s cloud business, will remain high this year, continuing a trend from last year, which, according to market research firm Dell’Oro Group, saw data center capital expenses amount to 53 percent of total capital expenditures.
In light of the role that the cloud now plays in Amazon’s growth, John Felton, AWS chief financial officer, said regarding investments in the technology, “We have to dive in. We have to figure it out.”
For his part, Kevin Miller, AWS vice president of global data centers, said, “We’re just keeping our heads down and focusing on delivering that capacity right now.”
