Amazon to invest £8 billion in UK datacentres

Brings planned investment to £11b by 2028

AWS says it will invest £8 billion in building, operating, and maintaining UK datacentres between 2024 and 2028.

That will bring the web giant's total investment in UK datacentres to £11 billion since 2020, and is part of the company's aim to contribute £14 billion to the UK's total GDP before 2028.

The company also aims to support an average of more than 14,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs annually, which will include ongoing roles as well as initial construction jobs.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said, "I am under no illusion to the scale of the challenge facing our economy. Two quarters of positive economic growth does not make up for 14 years of stagnation under the previous government." But, she added, the announcement "marks the start of the economic revival and shows Britain is a place to do business."

Peter Kyle, head of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), added that the news "reflects the growing strength of the UK's digital economy."

While the investment has been welcomed by most parties, the GMB union was sceptical. General secretary Gary Smith told The Guardian, "New jobs and investment are always welcome, but serious questions have to be asked over whether Amazon Web Services is a good company to celebrate.

"It receives hundreds of millions in taxpayer cash, while often paying limited amounts in tax. Meanwhile, workers in Amazon's warehouses are treated appallingly and denied a voice."

It's impossible to know how much tax Amazon actually paid without access to figures from within the company or HMRC, but it is estimated that the firm paid little to no tax in its 2021 and 2022 financial years.

The Competition and Markets Authority is currently investigating AWS and Microsoft's dominance of the UK cloud market.

The datacentres AWS plans to build will support customers in London and the west of England, but the company has not said exactly where they will be for security reasons.

The government says it is talking to AWS about investments in other parts of the country.