Auckland, New Zealand, September 2, 2025- Amazon has officially launched its long-awaited AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region, marking one of the largest digital infrastructure investments in the country’s history.
Through its cloud division, Amazon Web Services, the company has committed NZD 7.5 billion (about USD 4.4 billion) to build and operate data centers across New Zealand. The project, first announced in 2021, was formally unveiled on September 1, 2025, and is designed to meet the fast-growing demand for cloud services from businesses, startups, and government agencies.
The new AWS region will feature three separate Availability Zones, a setup that allows customers to securely store data locally while also reducing latency. By spreading workloads across multiple sites, Amazon says the system will strengthen resilience and offer businesses more confidence in running critical applications closer to home.
For New Zealand, the arrival of AWS is being described as a major step toward modernizing digital services and boosting the country’s standing in the global cloud economy.
Economic gains are a big part of the pitch. Amazon estimates the project will add NZD 10.8 billion to the national GDP over the next 15 years and create more than 1,000 full-time jobs each year. The jobs will cover operations, construction, and supply chain roles. Local tech leaders have welcomed the move, saying it gives homegrown startups a better chance to compete globally without having to send data offshore.
Prasad Kalyanaraman, Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AWS, stated that the new region will help serve the growing demand for cloud services. He added that the company will hire and develop local personnel to operate and support the new cloud region. Amazon has also committed to training 100,000 New Zealanders in cloud skills through programs like AWS Academy and AWS Skills Builder.
The investment also has a sustainability angle. Amazon has tied the data center operations to renewable energy from Mercury NZ’s Turitea South wind farm, aligning the project with its global pledge to run operations on 100% renewable energy by 2025.
This is seen as an important signal in a country where public concern about carbon footprints is strong, especially for industries as power-hungry as data hosting.
Still, not everyone is convinced. Industry watchers have raised questions about whether Amazon is truly building brand-new facilities or relying heavily on existing data center infrastructure. Some also suggest that the employment forecasts may be overly optimistic, pointing to past examples where tech investments created fewer jobs than promised. Adding to the uncertainty, Amazon has not disclosed the exact locations or construction timeline for the sites, citing security reasons.
Despite the doubts, the scale of the commitment underlines Amazon’s broader ambition. The company is pouring more than USD 50 billion into Asia-Pacific infrastructure, with New Zealand now joining a growing network of regions aimed at capturing the region’s surging appetite for cloud computing.
