US technology company Amazon is to invest £8 billion (€9.5 billion) in the ‘cloud‘ in the United Kingdom. The investment is a major windfall for the new social democratic government, which wants to prove itself quickly in economic terms.
News of the investment comes as new Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces criticism after announcing his first budget, due on October 30, would be “painful”, with cuts to public spending and tax rises likely.
The five-year investment should enable it to “support around 14,000 jobs per year,” Amazon said in its press release, and contribute up to £14 billion to gross domestic product (GDP) by 2028, Amazon said.
“Beginning of economic recovery”
“This announcement marks the beginning of the economic recovery and shows that Britain is a country that is good to do business in,” Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said in a statement. “But I will be honest with the British people: change will not happen overnight.”
It is Amazon Web Services (AWS), the division of Amazon dedicated to the ‘cloud‘, who is behind the investment. The intention is to build, operate and maintain data centres in the United Kingdom. In recent months, AWS has announced several major investments in Europe, including 18 billion euros in Germany.