Amazon in talks with Italy to invest billions of euros in cloud plan, sources say

Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG

27/05/2024 16:33

MILAN/STOCKHOLM, May 27 (Reuters) - Amazon's  AMZN.O 
computing unit AWS is in talks with Italy to invest billions of
euros in the expansion of its data centre business in the
country as part of the tech giant's effort to boost its cloud
offer in Europe, four people familiar with the matter said.
    Discussions between parties over the size and the location
of the investment are ongoing, according to the sources, with
one of them saying Amazon Web Service (AWS) is considering
expanding its current site in Milan or building a new one.
    Both AWS and a spokesperson for the cabinet's office digital
transition department declined to comment. A spokesperson for
Italy's industry ministry was not immediately available to
comment.
    AWS launched its first cloud region in Italy in 2020 as part
of a plan to invest 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) by 2029.  
    It counts luxury carmaker Ferrari  RACE.MI  and insurer
Assicurazioni Generali  GASI.MI  among its customers in the
country, its website showed.
    AWS has recently unveiled a 15.7 billion euros investment in
data centres in Spain's northeastern Aragon region, replacing a
previous 10-year plan announced in 2021, when the company
earmarked 2.5 billion euros for the country.
    According to one of the sources, AWS' investment in Italy
would be in the billions but it might not reach the scale of its
plans for Spain. An announcement is not imminent.
    In Germany, AWS plans to invest 7.8 billion euros through
2040.
    AWS is also building infrastructure to provide cloud
services to telecom customers, which require vast resources. 
    It snagged its first customer earlier this month when
Telefonica Deutschland  TEF.MC  announced plans to move 1
million customers to AWS cloud.
    AWS last year announced plans to store data on servers
located in the European Union to protect data privacy for
government and customers in highly regulated industries.
    Analysts and executives say many big corporate customers
have started spending again on cloud computing after pausing
last year, as interest in artificial intelligence drives a
rebound of growth in the $270 billion cloud infrastructure
market.
    Alphabet  GOOGL.O , which struck a landmark deal in 2020 to
supply cloud services to Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo
 ISP.MI , has invested 1 billion euros in Italy to set up the
two cloud regions Intesa relies upon.
    Microsoft  MSFT.O  a year ago said it was launching its
first cloud region in Italy as part of a $1.5 billion investment
plan it had announced in 2020.
    
    
   
    
     
    
    


($1 = 0.9211 euros)

 (Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Valentina Za in Milan,
Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm
Additional reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome
Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
 ((elvira.pollina@thomsonreuters.com;))