Amazon announced through its blog on the 4th that it plans to invest $10 billion (approximately 13.6 trillion won) to build a new data center in North Carolina to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Regarding the background for the new data center construction, Amazon said, "Generative AI is driving the demand for advanced cloud infrastructure and computing performance. We will support the future of AI through the North Carolina Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center." It added, "About 500 jobs will be created through the new data center."
This announcement comes five months after Amazon disclosed in January that it would invest at least $11 billion to construct a new data center in Georgia. Amazon has budgeted up to $100 billion for capital expenditure this year.
Andy Jassy, Amazon's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), noted at the end of February that generative AI is "a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity." In February, Amazon announced "Alexa+" which incorporates generative AI into its existing voice assistant Alexa, and in March, it launched a new AI model called "Nova Act" that can perform tasks on behalf of users. Last year, it introduced its own-developed chip, Tranium, and also invested $8 billion in the AI startup Anthropic.