Amazon to invest $4B in Chile to launch AWS infrastructure region

Amazon is making a sizable investment to support new and existing Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers in Chile.

The tech conglomerate announced on Wednesday that it will pour more than $4 billion into building an AWS infrastructure region of data centers in Chile by the end of 2026.

The investment will go toward establishing three availability zones, or groups of isolated data centers, in the new AWS region. Amazon said it also plans to hire and develop local talent to operate and support the region in Chile.

“The AWS South America (Chile) Region will help serve the fast-growing demand for cloud services across Latin America and in Chile with secure, reliable, and efficient cloud infrastructure,” Prasad Kalyanaraman, VP of infrastructure services at AWS, said in a statement. “With the new AWS Region, organizations will have the ability to build with advanced AWS technologies, like artificial intelligence and machine learning, to help accelerate growth, productivity, and innovation.”

AWS already has numerous customers in Chile, including LATAM Airlines, AgroSuper, and Andrés Bello National University.

This isn’t the first time Amazon has invested in AWS infrastructure and services in Chile.

In 2021, Amazon launched AWS Outposts in Chile, which helped extend on-premises access to AWS in the country. In 2023, the company gave customers the ability to leverage private connectivity between AWS and their data centers or offices. That same year, Amazon rolled out AWS Local Zones to help customers connect to very-low-latency AWS services.

TechCrunch has reached out to AWS for more information.

Several Amazon cloud competitors have a Chilean footprint. Google Cloud launched its first cloud region in Chile in 2021, after unveiling its plans five years ago. Microsoft’s Azure announced its first data center region in Chile in 2020.