Amazon splashes $11B on AI datacenters in Georgia

Peach State already home to more than 50 bit barns

Amazon's datacenter footprint in the US state of Georgia is set to swell, with an $11 billion investment proposed.

The online megacorp forked out around $75 billion on capital expenditure in 2024, according to CEO Andy Jassy, who told financial analysts in October that the business will dig even deeper during this calendar year.

Reg readers might not be surprised to discover that the majority of those greenbacks will be used up by the Web Services arm of Amazon, or that cloud computing and generative AI demand are the reasons given for the expansion.

According to Amazon's Global Infrastructure map, Atlanta hosts an AWS edge location rather than a full-fledged data center campus. AWS has indicated the funds will be directed toward datacenters in Butts and Douglas counties. It isn't clear whether that involves new site development or beefing up existing infrastructure in the state. We asked for comment.

Amazon says its facilities are intended to handle various workloads, including those requiring GPUs for AI and machine learning models. This advanced infrastructure is expected to boost Georgia's appeal as a hub for tech innovation, or so Amazon hopes.

"AWS's ongoing infrastructure investments across the United States demonstrate our relentless commitment to powering our customers' digital innovation through cloud and AI technologies," trilled Roger Wehner, VP of economic development at AWS in a canned statement.

The move has received public support from some local leaders.

"We are pleased and proud that Amazon Web Services, a world technology leader, has chosen to locate new datacenters in Butts County," said chairman of the Butts County Board of Commissioners, Russ Crumbley. He claimed this investment will be the most significant in the history of the county, located near Atlanta.

According to Georgia’s Department of Economic Development, the state is already home to more than 50 datacenters for companies including Facebook and Google.

The US has more bit barns than any other country - upwards of 5,000 - and more are being planned with cloud and AI services in mind.

On Monday, fellow hyperscaler Microsoft confirmed it is to invest $80 billion this year in building out its datacenter infrastructure, more than half of which is set to be lavished on sites in the US alone.

Yesterday, President-elect Trump claimed a Dubai-based property developer plans to splash $20 billion to build bit barns in the US over an undefined period.

Over in the UK, Amazon said in September that it plans to pour £8 billion ($10.4 billion) into data facilities in Britain between now and 2028.

The world - it seems - is going AI datacenter crazy, regardless of the environmental or energy implications. ®

Updated to add on January 9th

AWS said its plans to build DC campuses in Butts and Douglas Counties would bring "at least" 550 skilled, well-paid jobs to the local Georgia economy. It said these would include "datacenter engineers, support engineers, network specialists, engineering operations managers, and security specialists" that the vendor is hiring directly though it didn't break out how many of the 550 jobs were direct.