AWS is investing $18 billion in Germany to expand its data center and AI infrastructure footprint, AWS CEO Matt Garman said in a LinkedIn post.
The package also funds Amazon's Leo satellite broadband service and new logistics projects, and includes $5.4 billion earmarked for the Frankfurt region in 2027.
Germany already hosts two AWS regions and several development centers, and Amazon says its operations have contributed more than €18 billion to German GDP.
AWS employs 3,000 people in Germany, and Amazon says its technology investments there have created more than 40,000 permanent jobs since 2010.
The investment lands as German communities push back against new data centers over electricity, water and land use; one estimate puts the country's potential data-center electricity demand at 78 to 116 TWh by 2037, which could account for as much as 10% of national electricity consumption. In February, Groß-Gerau's council rejected a proposed €2.5 billion data center after local protests over waste heat.
Garman addressed the backlash directly in a blog post this month, framing much of the opposition as "misinformation and outright lies" driven by social media. He pointed to more than 100 data center moratoriums under consideration across the United States, warning: "the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations."
Amazon says it has invested $276 billion in data centers between 2011 and 2025, with large projects also under way in Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana and Mississippi. The company has committed to being water-positive across its data centers by 2030, and says it is already 75% of the way toward that goal.
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