Amazon has announced plans to invest $10 billion to expand AI infrastructure in North Carolina. This project aims to support advances in artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies.
Amazon states that this project would help create at least 500 new high-skilled jobs while supporting thousands of other jobs in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center supply chain.
“Generative AI is driving increased demand for advanced cloud infrastructure and compute power, and our investment will support the future of AI from AWS data centers in the Tar Heel State. This deployment of cutting-edge cloud computing infrastructure will strengthen North Carolina’s position as an innovation hub,” the company said, and added that the new jobs created will range from data center engineers and network specialists to engineering operations managers, security specialists, and many more technical roles. Besides these direct positions, this investment would support thousands of local construction jobs and positions in the data center supply chain, as well as other jobs in the local community.
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“Amazon’s $10 billion investment in North Carolina underscores our commitment to driving innovation and advancing the future of cloud computing and AI technologies,” said David Zapolsky, Amazon’s chief global affairs and legal officer. “This investment will position North Carolina as a hub for cutting-edge technology, create hundreds of high-skilled jobs, and drive significant economic growth. We look forward to partnering with state and local leaders, local suppliers, and educational institutions to nurture the next generation of talent.”
The company also stated it would bring training and education programs to local communities including data center technician programs, fiber optic fusion splicing workshops, and STEM awareness and learning opportunities for K-12 schools.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has called generative AI a “once-in-a-lifetime type of business opportunity.” The company has earmarked up to $100 billion this year on capital expenditures, with the lion’s share going to AI-related projects. Similar to other major tech companies, Amazon is racing to build out its capacity to power AI tasks in order to keep up with rivals including Microsoft, Google and OpenAI.
Amazon said in January that it would spend at least $11 billion in Georgia to build new data centers to support cloud computing and AI demand. This plan is expected to create at least 550 new jobs in the state.
Over the last year, Amazon has announced multiple generative AI products. These include its own language models Trainium chips, a shopping chatbot and a marketplace for third-party models called Bedrock. It has also invested $8 billion in AI startup Anthropic, which is known for its Claude chatbot. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has also announced a partnership with Humain, Saudi Arabia’s newly created company responsible for driving AI innovation across the kingdom and globally.
Amazon also said its latest AI projects are related to robots, last-mile delivery and supply chain optimization. In the case of robots, Amazon said its agentic AI team is developing an AI foundation model framework that will allow robots like the company’s Proteus to “understand natural language commands, reason about them, and act autonomously.” The company also announced an initiative for last-mile delivery called Wellspring, that aims to “dramatically improve precision of deliveries and the driver experience through the use of generative AI.”
The company also revealed its latest AI foundation model powering its Supply Chain Optimization Technology (SCOT). “This model processes over 400 million items across 270 different time spans, fundamentally changing how the company forecasts and positions inventory in ways that benefit price, selection and convenience for customers,” the company said.