Amazon plans to invest up to $US50 billion ($77 billion) to expand its capacity for providing artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing services to entities within the US government. Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced plans to break ground next year on data centres specifically designed for federal agencies, aiming for an additional 1.3 gigawatts of capacity. The announcement was made in a company blog post.
AWS, the world’s largest seller of rented computing power, offers US government clients services from dedicated facilities designed to meet strict security standards. These standards address critical aspects such as data handling, isolation from commercial projects, and the nationality of employees. The services are tailored to meet the unique requirements and compliance needs of government agencies.
According to the announcement, AWS will provide agencies with access to Amazon’s suite of AI tools, including those from its partner Anthropic, as well as chips from Nvidia and Amazon’s in-house chipmaking division. AWS supports over 11,000 government agencies and provides services from more than 900 data centres globally, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
Amazon Web Services is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide a variety of basic abstract technical infrastructure and distributed computing building blocks and tools.
