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Amazon (AMZN) Boosts Focus on APAC With Japan Investment Plans

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Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) is continuously making solid efforts to bolster its presence in the cloud computing space of the Asia-Pacific (“APAC”) region.

This is evident from Amazon Web Services’ (“AWS”) latest investment plans in Japan. The company intends to pump in 2.26 trillion yen ($15.24 billion) in Japan by 2027.

With this investment, AWS strives to boost its cloud infrastructure across the country, especially in Tokyo and Osaka.

The latest move is likely to aid AWS in catering well to the growing demand for artificial intelligence services in Japan.

The underlined investment plan comes on top of AWS’ spending of 1.51 trillion yen in the country throughout 2011-2022.

AWS’ growing investments in Japan are expected to bolster its presence in the booming public cloud market of the country, which, per a report from Statista, is expected to generate $21.44 billion in revenues in 2024. The figure is expected to reach $34.1 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 12.3% between 2024 and 2028.

Growth Prospects in APAC

Apart from the latest Japan expansion plans, AWS plans to launch an infrastructure region in Malaysia, in which it strives to invest around $6 billion by 2037 and support job creation in the country.

The company’s launch of its second infrastructure region in Melbourne, Australia, last year remains a plus. Through the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) region, AWS strives to invest around $4.5 billion by 2037 and support 2,500 full-time jobs annually.

Also, the launch of an infrastructure region in Israel, located in Tel Aviv, namely, AWS Israel (Tel Aviv) Region, is another positive.

AWS has plans to open a region in Bangkok, Thailand. It also intends to set up an infrastructure region in Auckland, New Zealand, comprising three availability zones.

All these endeavors are expected to aid Amazon, which carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present, to capitalize on the growth prospects present in the APAC region, which is an emerging market for cloud technology and has been under the spotlight for the past few years. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Per a Research and Markets report, the cloud market in the APAC region is expected to witness a CAGR of 15.1% between 2023 and 2030.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service are gaining strong momentum in APAC.

Several companies in APAC have already migrated workloads to the cloud and many are in the process of migration. The firms are highly focused on the development of digital transformation solutions through the cloud to cater to increasing customer demand.

Competitive Scenario

Given the booming scenario in APAC, not only Amazon but also its peers like Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) and Alibaba (BABA - Free Report) are leaving no stone unturned to expand their presence in the region.

Microsoft’s Azure is gearing up for the opening of five data centers in APAC, namely South Central India, Indonesia Central, Malaysia West, New Zealand North and Taiwan North, which will be located in Hyderabad, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland and Taipei, respectively.

Microsoft Azure also has plans to launch a Saudi Arabia Central region.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Google launched a data center in Japan in 2023, marking its third such establishment in Asia. The facility is located in Inzai, Chiba. Google’s opening of a data center in Singapore is also noteworthy.

Google’s opening of cloud regions in India’s New Delhi and Australia’s Melbourne last year is an uptrend. Further, the search giant’s opening of the new region located in Doha, Qatar and Dammam, Saudi Arabia, is another positive.

Alibaba is hugely investing in expanding its presence in the cloud market of the underlined region. The launch of Alibaba Cloud’s third data center in Indonesia remains noteworthy.

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