Amazon Web Services plans to commit a minimum of $5 billion to South Korea through 2031 for constructing new data centers focused on artificial intelligence, according to an announcement from South Korea's presidential office. This investment aligns with Seoul's goal of establishing itself as a regional AI center in Asia.
The investment commitment was revealed when AWS CEO Matt Garman met with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Amazon was among seven international companies whose leadership participated in a collective meeting with Lee in Gyeongju, South Korea, where they committed to investing a combined $9 billion over the upcoming five-year period, as reported by the presidential office.
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During his discussion with Garman, Lee stated that Amazon's financial commitment would help accelerate the development of South Korea's AI industry ecosystem, supporting the nation's objective to rank among the top three global AI powers.
"At AWS, we've invested and committed to investment of an additional $40 billion across 14 non-US APEC countries and economies between now and 2028," Garman says.
"And, that $40 billion actually drives an additional $45 billion in US GDP and downstream benefit, benefiting all of the APEC economy," he said at a business event on the sidelines of the summit.
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Amazon Web Services intends to construct new data centers on Seoul's periphery.
In June, AWS revealed a $4 billion investment strategy for South Korea as part of SK Group's initiative to develop the nation's largest data center in Ulsan, located in the southeastern region. The company has similarly declared investments in additional nations, such as Japan, Australia, and Singapore.
This month, South Korea's presidential administration announced that OpenAI intended to establish joint partnerships with Samsung and SK to create two data centers, described as a Korean version of Stargate, featuring an initial capacity of 20 megawatts.
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According to OpenAI, South Korea ranks among the countries with the highest number of paid ChatGPT users, trailing only behind the US.
OpenAI has additionally entered into preliminary agreements to obtain memory chips for its data centers from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.