Amazon Web Services to invest $8.3 billion in Maharashtra in the coming years, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has reiterated its commitment to investing $8.3 billion in Maharashtra over the coming years, reinforcing India’s growing role in the global cloud computing ecosystem. A team from AWS India, led by Sandeep Dutta, President of AWS India and South Asia, met Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Monday to outline the company’s expansion plans.

Following the meeting, Vaishnaw described the discussions as productive, emphasising AWS’s optimism about India’s digital future.

Speaking to reporters, Vaishnaw highlighted AWS’s plans to deploy cutting-edge GPUs and enhance compute and cloud management services in India. “The team of Amazon Web Services explained their entire plan of investing about $8.3 billion in Maharashtra in the coming few years. They are very optimistic about growth in India. They are bringing the latest technologies, deploying some of the best compute facilities, and expanding cloud management services,” he said.

The investment aligns with AWS’s broader $12.7 billion commitment across India by 2030, announced in May 2023, as the company aims to meet rising demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital services in the region.

AWS’s investment in Maharashtra is expected to significantly contribute to job creation and economic growth. According to company estimates, the $8.3 billion investment will add $15.3 billion to India’s GDP and support over 81,300 full-time jobs annually in the data center supply chain by 2030.

This initiative was formalised earlier this year when AWS and the Maharashtra government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis hailed the collaboration as a transformative step for the state’s technological growth. “As we fulfill our vision of becoming a global capital for data centers, this collaboration will not only bolster our state’s technological infrastructure but also create new opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and job creation,” Fadnavis said in a statement.

AWS has steadily expanded its cloud infrastructure in India over the years. The company launched its first Indian cloud region, AWS Asia-Pacific (Mumbai), in 2016, followed by the AWS Asia-Pacific (Hyderabad) region in 2022.

David Zapolsky, Senior Vice President of Global Public Policy and General Counsel at Amazon, previously emphasised AWS’s long-term commitment to India’s digital economy. “At AWS, we see tremendous potential for India’s digital economy to thrive for years to come with the growing demand for cloud and artificial intelligence. This is why we plan to invest $8.3 billion into cloud infrastructure in Maharashtra by 2030,” Zapolsky stated.