AWS to Invest $5 Billion in South Korea to Power AI Growth

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to invest nearly $5 billion in South Korea by 2031, aimed at building new artificial-intelligence data centres near Seoul. The move is part of AWS’s wider push to strengthen its AI and cloud infrastructure across Asia.

The announcement came during a meeting between AWS CEO Matt Garman and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on the sidelines of the APEC Summit. President Lee welcomed the move, calling it an important step toward South Korea’s goal of becoming one of the world’s top three AI leaders.

Garman shared that AWS has committed over $40 billion in additional investments across 14 non-U.S. APEC countries through 2028. This global investment drive is expected to generate about $45 billion in U.S. GDP and create wider benefits across APEC economies.

For South Korea, the $5 billion allocation builds on AWS’s earlier partnership announced in June, a joint $5 billion project with SK Group to develop the country’s largest data centre. The new facilities near Seoul will strengthen AWS’s local infrastructure footprint, bringing cloud capacity closer to major enterprises and research hubs.

South Korea has been actively investing in AI research, digital infrastructure, and data governance as part of its national innovation agenda. The government hopes that global players like AWS will help accelerate progress in machine learning, cloud computing, and advanced analytics.

By locating data centers close to Seoul, AWS can tap into a highly connected region with strong power grids, advanced broadband networks, and skilled tech talent. The project is expected to support not only AWS’s clients but also the broader ecosystem, including demand for real estate, energy, cooling systems, and digital services.

For AWS, this investment underscores a strategic focus on non-U.S. markets as next-generation growth centres for AI workloads. The expansion signals that the company sees long-term potential in Asia’s fast-digitising economies. It also strengthens AWS’s competitive edge against rivals such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, who are similarly ramping up international data-centre investments.

From a macro-economic view, the move reflects the global race to build AI infrastructure. As countries seek digital sovereignty, cloud providers are diversifying their capacity to meet local regulations and reduce geopolitical risk.

The $5 billion plan stretches to 203, allowing time for phased construction, regulatory clearances, and talent development. While AWS has not yet disclosed the precise location, capacity, or rollout timeline, the investment marks one of the largest foreign technology commitments in South Korea’s recent history.

Industry watchers note that this partnership aligns both AWS’s growth goals and South Korea’s digital vision, potentially making the country a regional AI innovation hub.