According to the new AWS Economic Impact Study for Germany published today, this planned investment is expected to support 15,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs annually in local German companies. With investments of €9.6 billion in Germany from 2014 to 2023, AWS contributed an estimated €18.4 billion to Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) and supported over 5,900 jobs per year over this ten-year period. Today’s announcement of a planned €8.8 billion investment is expected to contribute €15.4 billion to Germany’s GDP and support over 15,200 jobs annually from 2024 to 2026.
AWS also announced plans last month to invest €7.8 billion in the AWS European Sovereign Cloud between 2024 and 2040. The first AWS European Sovereign Cloud will be available to customers in Brandenburg in Germany by the end of 2025 and is expected to contribute €17.2 billion to Germany’s economic output between 2024 and 2040. On average, it is expected to support 2,800 jobs annually during this period.
AWS in Germany
Tens of thousands of active customers use the AWS region in Germany, which was opened in 2014 with two availability zones to digitally transform their businesses. In 2017, a third availability zone was added to the Europe (Frankfurt) region. Since then, the AWS infrastructure in Germany has grown to a total of 39 edge locations, three WaveLength zones in Berlin, Dortmund and Munich and a regional edge cache in Frankfurt. In October 2022, AWS launched its first AWS Local Zone in Hamburg, offering German AWS customers even lower latencies for their applications. AWS has offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Walldorf. Employees in sales, marketing and business development work in these offices. The AWS Development Centers in Aachen, Berlin, Dresden and Tübingen contribute to the backbone of AWS cloud development, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) services such as Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock.
Strengthening the cloud workforce in Germany
AWS is investing in education and training programs to provide easy access to cloud learning and upskill the next generation of tech workers in Germany. Initiatives include a training program in Frankfurt in partnership with Siemens AG, the first national cloud computing certification in Germany in partnership with the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, AWS re/Start, AWS Educate, AWS Academy, the AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance and AWS GetIT.
AWS InCommunities: Local added value through global engagement
With AWS InCommunities, AWS develops long-term initiatives with a focus on education, skills development, sustainability and overcoming local challenges. In the Rhine-Main region, employees invested almost 800 hours in volunteer projects directly on site in 2023, such as the renovation of a children’s playground in Frankfurt. AWS also established the Frankfurt Fund to provide grants totaling 100,000 euros to local non-profit organizations, schools and community groups.
Sustainable Cloud for a Greener Future
As part of the Climate Pledge, Amazon has set a goal to be carbon neutral in its operations by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. Amazon is on track to meet 100% of its global electricity consumption from renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its original 2030 target.
In Europe, Amazon has invested more than €2.4 billion in renewable energy projects, enabling more than 180 wind and solar projects in 13 countries. Once all projects are operational, they are expected to provide 6.7 gigawatts of energy capacity – enough to power over 5.7 million German homes annually.
Amazon is the world’s largest private buyer of renewable energy. Renewable energy projects facilitated by Amazon in Germany include Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm, with a planned capacity of 350 megawatts (MW) upon completion in 2025, and Iberdrola’s Baltic Eagle and Windanker offshore wind farms, each of which will provide Amazon with 320 MW of clean energy per year upon completion.
AWS is committed to minimizing its environmental impact through energy efficiency measures such as custom Graviton4 and Trainium chips, which consume less energy compared to local data centers. Additionally, AWS aims to be water-positive by 2030, returning more water to sites than it needs to operate its business directly. AWS provides tools such as the AWS Well-Architected Sustainability Pillar, the AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool and the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative to help customers improve their cloud architectures, measure emissions, predict future impacts and drive sustainability research and innovation.
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Further links
👉 www.aboutamazon.de
👉 Study on the importance of cloud computing for the German economy
Photo: pixabay
