TAIPEI, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of Amazon.com Inc, has announced plans to invest more than US$5 billion (RM23.5 billion) over the next 15 years to establish a new cloud region in Taiwan.
The investment underscores Taiwan’s growing importance as a digital hub in Asia, with AWS aiming to support the island’s innovation-driven economy, technology ecosystem and data sovereignty needs.
The new AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region will comprise three Availability Zones, each with independent power, cooling and physical security, enabling customers to build highly reliable and resilient applications.
Amazon said the development will empower local businesses, start-ups, public sector agencies, and educational institutions to run workloads and securely store data within Taiwan, meeting growing demand for cloud services in areas such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, e-commerce, and financial services.
“The new AWS Region in Taiwan will bring world-class cloud infrastructure closer to our customers, offering them greater choice and flexibility,” said Prasad Kalyanaraman, Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AWS.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs welcomed the announcement, noting that the move is aligned with the country’s push towards digital transformation, cybersecurity enhancement, and fostering innovation in its semiconductor-driven economy.
Industry analysts said the investment could further solidify Taiwan’s position as a strategic hub in the Asia-Pacific technology landscape, while also creating opportunities for talent development and local supply chain growth.
AWS currently operates 105 Availability Zones across 33 geographic regions globally, with several more under development in countries including Malaysia, Thailand, and Israel.
The Taiwan expansion comes at a time of intensifying competition among global cloud providers, as Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba Cloud also expand their footprints across Asia to tap into surging demand from enterprises and governments embracing digitalisation.
